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THE STORY 



WASHINGTON COACHEE 



THE POWEL COACH 



WHICH IS NOW AT 



MOUNT VERNON 



WRITTEN AND COMPILED 

BY 

MRS. MARY STEVENS BEALL 

Secretary to the Columbia Historical Society 
For ROBERT L. BROWNFIELD, of Uniontown, Pa. 



Washington, D. C. 

The Neale Publishing Company 
1908 



'.LiBrtASY of 0:NliA£5S 

I JUN 8 li'J8 



Copyright, 1908 

BY 

Robert L. Brownfield 



\ '/- 



^%- 



-Tp^'' 



Contents. 



PAGE 

A Foreword 5 

The Washington Family Carriage, the Genuine 

AND THE Spurious 7 

History of the Washington Coachee 12 

True History of the Coach Now at Mount 

Vernon 22 

Documentary History in the Washington Coach 

Controversy 36 

The Spurious Washington Coach 51 

True History of the So-called "Washington 

Coach" 59 

Copies of Letters, &c., Concerning the Powel 

' ' Centennial ' ' Coach 64 

Opinion Rendered by Prof. J. F. Jameson . , 68 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Washington Coachee Frontispiece 

Powel Coach Facing 64 



A Foreword. 



A word of explanation seems necessary before present- 
ing the story of the Washington coachee and the Powel 
coach, with the Documentary History relating to them. 
Searching for proof of the authenticity of the coachee, 
evidence cropped up on every hand of the Powel origin 
of the coach that superseded the coachee in the restored 
coach-house at Mount Vernon . If fire and the indifference 
of former owners have destroyed documentary evidence 
of the Washington origin of the coachee, the unique posi- 
tion must be accorded it of being the only vehicle in exist- 
ence whose claim to having originally belonged to Wash- 
ington can not be disputed except as a matter of opinion, 
and against whose claim no proof has ever been advanced. 

When diligent search had failed to discover any testi- 
mony against the Washington origin of the coachee and 
much circumstantial evidence to substantiate its claim ; 
and when an unbroken chronology had been established 
for the coach from its importation in 1789 for Mrs. Samuel 
Powel, down to the present time, Mr. R. L. Brown field 
of Uniontown, Pa., asked permission to lay the facts 
before the Regent and Vice-Regents of the Mount Vernon 
Ladies Association. This privilege was accorded, and 
May 23, 1907, was appointed as the day. 

The Mount Vernon Association was represented by 
Mrs. Elizabeth B. A. Rathbone, Vice-Regent for Michi- 
gan, and Mrs. Henry W. Rogers, Vice-Regent for Mary- 
land. Mr. Brownfield was represented by his son Mr. 
R. L. Brownfield, Jr., by Mr. Hugh T. Taggart, former 
United States Attorney, and by Mrs Mary Stevens Beall, 

6 



6 

Secretary to the Columbia Historical Society. Mrs. Beall 
briefly stated the facts in the case which, after discussion, 
it was agreed should be submitted to Professor J. Franklin 
Jameson, Director Department of Historical Research, Car- 
negie Institution, Washington, D. C, and authority was 
given to Mr. Harrison H. Dodge, Resident Secretary and 
Superintendent at Mount Vernon, to let Professor Jameson 
have access to such papers as the Association had, bearing 
upon the coach, either in seeing the originals or in having 
copies of the same. 

For the sake of historical accuracy. Professor Jameson 
consented to perform this task ; the material was placed 
in his hands December 10, 1907, and his opinion was 
rendered February 19, 1908. 



The Washington Family-Carriage, the 
Genuine and the Spurious. 



When the restoration of the negro-quarters, outbuild- 
ings, etc., at Mount Vernon was determined upon, certain 
of the Vice-Regents pledged their States to carry out desig- 
nated parts of the plan. Thus Michigan assumed the 
"restoration of the old coach-house," and in 1894 the 
Vice-Regent for that State reported its completion at a 
cost of two hundred and seventy dollars. 

In 1895 the same Vice-Regent reports: 

" Very soon after the adjournment of the Council last 
year, the earnest search for the ' lost coach ' was rewarded 
through the zealous interest of Mr. Brown field of Phila- 
delphia, who not only left no step untaken to recover the 
Washington coach, but generously presented it to the 
Association." 

Mr. Brownfield's efforts in this matter were the result 
of a personal appeal to him. The Mount Vernon Asso- 
ciation having been informed that a Washington carriage 
had been sold at Thomas' auction rooms in Philadelphia, 
about 1892, to a circus company, Mr. Harrison H. Dodge, 
Resident Secretary and Superintendent at Mount Vernon, 
wrote to the Commissioners of Pennsylvania to the World's 
Fair, to ascertain if they knew where the coach was, and 
if an offer of purchase would be entertained, he having 
heard the Commissioners had tried to buy it. 

This letter was turned over by Mr. A. B. Farquhar, one 
of the Commissioners, to Mr. Brownfield, then of Phila- 

7 



8 

delphia, now of Uniontown, Pa., with the comment, 
Ma}^ 28, 1894: " You are one of the Commissioners; you 
live in Philadelphia; * * * and possibly you could 
help out Mr. Dodge." Mr. Brownfield began the search 
at once and exactly one month later was able to write to 
Mr. Dodge, June 28, 1894: 

' ' I have the pleasure of informing you that I have 
found General Washington's coach, bought, paid for it, 
and will now ask the Mount Vernon Ladies Association 
to do me the honor of accepting it as a present from me . ' ' 

Mr. Dodge replied by telegraph : 

' ' Congratulations ; expect me Saturday at noon . ' ' 

Mr. Farquhar wrote, June 29, 1894: 

"Thanks for yours of June 28th but I had already 
been apprised by the papers of the successful termination 
of your search for the coach. * * * j ofPer my 
thanks and congratulations for restoring this intimate 
connection with the Father of our Country." 

Mrs. Mary G. Forepaugh, answering a letter of inquiry 
from Mr. Brownfield, had written, June 2, 1894: 

"I would gladly return the coach to the Ladies of 
Virginia — if I still owned it — but the circus, with all its 
paraphernalia, was sold after Mr. Forepaugh 's death." 

The purchasers were the Barnum and Bailey Circus 
Company. 

The Philadelphia Daily Evening Telegraph of June 28, 
1894, devoted nearly a column to the subject of the secur- 
ing for Mount Vernon of so interesting a relic as ' ' George 
Washington's family carriage." 

Mr. Dodge's letter of July 4, 1894, gives the next stage 
in the progress of affairs and is quoted entire : 



" My dear Mr. Brownfield: 

" You will doubtless be pleased to learn that the coach 
is safely placed in the coach-house at Mount Vernon, 
where it is exhibited to-day for the first time and attracts 
the interest and attention of many people. 

' ' It reached Washington Monday in good condition — I 
oversaw the unloading from the car and when the wheels 
were adjusted I enveloped the relic in a cotton carriage 
cover, then had the old coach (thus masqueraded) 
dragged by one strong man down to the steamboat, I 
keeping it close company you may be sure. 

" When it reached our wharf and was being unloaded, 
the passengers then for the first time discovered this im- 
portant addition to the attractions and made a great fuss 
over it. 

' ' I can not help wondering what the good people of 
Philadelphia are saying to-day about the absence of the 
Washington coach from their grand parade. Some of the 
M. V. Ladies to whom I announced your kind donation, 
have hastened to mention their gratification at the ' find.' 

" Please be assured of the keen appreciation of your 
gift by all concerned. When you can pay the promised 
visit to Mount Vernon, I shall be glad indeed to meet 
and entertain you." 



On the 6th of July, same year, Mr. Farquhar wrote 
again to Mr. Brownfield: 

" I have a very pretty letter from Mr. Dodge this morn- 
ing thanking me for my interest in the coach. I quote 
literally : 'We never dreamed that it was his [Mr. Brown- 
field's] intention to donate the coach if found, but this he 
has done, and now the old equipage rests from its travels 
and attracts the attention of the many visitors here; I 
think I wrote you that the coach-house has been recently 
restored. ' " 



Here is the text of one of the personal letters referred 
to by Mr. Dodge : 



10 

"Ann Arbor, Michigan, 

''July 14, J 894. 
" Mr. Robert L. Brownfield, Philadelphia, 

' ' Dear Sir : I would like to add my personal acknowl- 
edgments to the official recognition which your generous 
gift of the ' old coach ' has doubtless received from the 
Secretary of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. I 
made efforts last summer to find one of Washington's 
coaches to restore to the coach-house, which as Vice- 
Regent for Michigan I had undertaken to rebuild — but 
with no result until upon the completion of the coach- 
house this spring, Mr. Dodge came to my aid and through 
him your generous co-operation was secured . The success 
has been most gratifying and I can not thank you enough 
for your patriotic interest, zeal and generosity. I hope 
you will visit Mount Vernon during the session of the 
Annual Council, which takes place next year — or rather 
opens — on the third Thursday of May, that we may have 
the pleasure of showing you ' The Coach ' in its old quar- 
ters and other interesting features of Washington's Old 
Home. 

" Very gratefully yours, 

"Elizabeth B. A. Rathbone, 
" Vice-Regent for Michigan, 

'' M. V. L. Association.'" 

An article headed " Washington's Coach " printed in 
the Sunday Jn^er- Ocean, Chicago, July 29, 1894, from the 
Detroit Free Press, ends with this statement : 

' ' The regents of the Association will henceforth accord 
great honor to Mr. Brownfield's courtesy, * * * and 
will do everything in their power to attest their gratitude 
and appreciation." 

On April 24, 1895, Mr. Dodge wrote : 

' * I regret so much that your long-promised visit to 
Mount Vernon is still unpaid. The approaching meeting 
of the Ladies Asso. (May 16) would be an excellent occa- 
sion for you to avail yourself of to come and personall)'- 
receive their thanks for your gift of the coach," 



11 

The above extracts from letters and newspapers are 
quoted for the purpose of showing that Mr. Brownfield 
was asked to find a certain old coach of which the ladies 
of the Mount Vernon Association had already heard ; and 
also their reception of the gift. His connection with 
George Washington's old family carriage was the result 
of a direct request and was wholly in the interest of the 
Association, and to aid in collecting the belongings of 
"Washington and in restoring them to his home at Mount 
Vernon . There was no thought of personal aggrandize- 
ment and no advantage, monetary or otherwise, has 
accrued to him through this connection. 

Shortly after April, 1895, Mr. Brownfield moved to 
Uniontown, Pa., and never availed himself of the oft- 
repeated invitations to become the guest of the Regent 
and Vice-Regents at Mount Vernon. His gift, however, 
was shown with pride and continued to occupy its place 
of honor in the coach-house until 1901, when a vehicle 
that had been exhibited at the Centennial Exposition of 
1876 as "General Washington's White Chariot" was 
purchased by the Vice-Regent for Michigan with funds 
contributed by the Mount Vernon Society of Detroit, and 
this was installed in the place of the Washington family 
carriage or coachee, and that once highly prized relic was 
banished to the stable. 



History of the Washington Coachee. 



Until the United States began preparations for the 
celebration of her first Revolutionary Centennial little 
regard had been paid to old things. Colonial furnishings 
that to-day would be accorded an honorable place in a 
museum, or treasured by the inheritor as a priceless 
heirloom, were thrown aside in the early part of the 
nineteenth century as past their day of usefulness. Wash- 
ington's three coaches, all cream-color, all emblazoned 
with his coat of arms and enriched with decorated panels 
and gilding, are known to have passed out of existence 
early in the last century — one being shot to pieces at the 
battle of New Orleans; one taken to pieces by Bishop 
Meade, of which there is credible evidence; and a third 
taken to pieces by Henry Dunlap, Sr. ; but a less preten- 
tious vehicle, in a good state of preservation, exists at 
the present day — this is his coachee, referred to again and 
again in his diary as the family carriage ; and sold from 
Mount Vernon after the death of Mrs. Washington. 

Isaac Weld, the traveler, who visited the United States 
during the last decade of the eighteenth century, 1795- 
1797, gives the following description:* 

' ' The carriages made use of in Philadelphia consist of 
coaches, chariots, coachees and light wagons, the greater 
part of which are built in Philadelphia. * * * The 
coachee is a carriage peculiar, I believe, to America. The 
body of it is rather longer than that of a coach, but of the 

* " History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884," by J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson 
Westcott. Vol. 1. p. 912. 

12 



13 

same shape. In the front it is left quite open down to 
the bottom and the driver sits on a bench under the roof 
of the carriage. There are two seats in it for passengers, 
who sit in it with their faces to the horses. The roof is 
supported by small props, which are placed at the corners. 
On each side of the door, above the panels, it is quite 
open; and, to guard against bad weather, there are cur- 
tains which are made to let down from the roof, and 
fasten to buttons on the outside. There is also a leathern 
curtain, to hang occasionally between the driver and 
passengers. The only difference between the small wagon 
and the coachee is that the latter is better furnished, has 
varnished panels and doors at the side." 

Washington's coachee differs in but one particular, its 
door is in the rear, the back seat being divided in the 
middle and folding back, on hinges, against the sides. 
The upholstering is of thick but pliable leather that looks 
good enough for another century's wear. The body of 
the coachee is suspended by stout leathern straps, to 
wooden C spring;s, which John Philipson in his " The 
Art and Craft of Coach Building," London, 1897, 
declares to be " practically the oldest method of suspend- 
ing carriages on springs." 

The Washington coachee could be driven with two 
horses, the coachman occupying the front seat; or, if the 
roads were muddy or the occupants of the vehicle wished 
to talk unreservedly without the restraining presence 
of a servant, an additional pair of horses could be 
attached and the four guided by two postillions, leaving 
the driver's seat to accommodate two more occupants. 
There is no trace of gilding or emblazonry on this car- 
riage, but as it was intended for everyday use and not 
for state occasions, we are neither surprised nor dis- 
appointed at its plain, unostentatious appearance. There 
are evidences here and there of some slight repairs and 
a whip-socket is unmistakably a later addition. The 



14 

wheels are more dished than are those of the present day 
and the hubs are of wood. The body is painted a warm 
shade of claret that contrasts well with the tan color of 
the lining and cushions. 

Washington Irving in his " Life of Washington," 
Vol. V, p. 19, describing the carriages of the first Presi- 
dent, says: 

" Besides this modest equipage [the post chaise] there 
was the ample family carriage which had been brought 
from Virginia. To this, four horses were put when the 
family drove out into the countr}-^, the state of the roads 
in those days requiring it. For the same reason six 
horses were put to the same vehicle on journeys, and 
once on a state occasion." 

Once, when Washington had been ill, his family car- 
riage was the chosen vehicle in which he took the air, for 
on May 29, 1790, the Pennsylvania Packet announces: 

" The President of the United States is so far recovered 
that he rode out in his carriage on Monday last." (May 
24.) 

For the most part, however, after the purchase of his 
English coach, the family carriage seems to have been 
relegated to the background during the presidency. But 
when the family returned to Mount Vernon it was once 
more Mrs. Washington's chosen vehicle. Mrs. William 
Thornton, wife of the architect of the Capitol, while visit- 
ing Mrs. Washington in 1800, records in her diary: 

''Aug. 4th — After breakfast Mrs. Lewis, the young 
ladies [Miss Henley and Miss DandridgeJ and I went in 
Mrs. Washington's carriage (a coachee and four) and Mr. 
Lewis & Dr. T [hornton] in ours, to see Mr. Lewis' Hill — 
where he is going to build, and his farm, & Mill and 
distillery." 



15 

In other records of the period we find references to Mrs. 
Washington's carriage and we know it was not parted with 
until after her death in May, 1802, for in the advertise- 
ment of the auction sale at Mount Vernon to be held July 
20, 1802, the executors of George Washington offer this 
" Coachee, with Harness compleat for four horses." A 
grand-niece of General Washington writes: " I think 
there is a list of articles sold at that sale and the purchas- 
ers." The statement is correct for the original records of 
this sale are in the manuscript collection of W. F. Have- 
meyer, of New York, who purchased them from one of 
the Washington heirs. Mr. Lawrence Washington of the 
Library of Congress is authority for stating that these lists 
contained the names of all the purchasers, the articles pur- 
chased and the amount paid for each. 

Being so well and strongly built, the coachee was pur- 
chased at the auction and even at subsequent sales for use, 
with no thought of considering it as a relic. Still, the 
illustriousness of its first possessor always invested it with 
an interest not attached to ordinary vehicles ; and as it 
passed from one to another, the story of its being the 
family carriage of George Washington was always handed 
on with it, well-authenticated, and as much a part of the 
old coachee as its antiquated wooden springs, or its unique 
rear door. At last, however, the very characteristics that, 
to-day, contribute to its interest as a relic, rendered it un- 
desirable for daily use and it gradually ceased to be seen 
on the country roads. 



On December 24, 1907, there died in the city of Wash- 
ington a venerable lady, Mrs. Ann (George) Reese, whose 
life had nearly spanned a century, as she was born 
December 4, 1809. She had a remarkable memory. 
* * Although she was only three years of age when the war 
of 1812 began, she could remember the soldiers of the 



16 

United States marching away, their wives and sweethearts 
trailing after them . She was present at the great reception 
given in Baltimore in 1824 to the Marquis de Lafayette 
and stood on a housetop waving a handkerchief and cheer- 
ing the great Frenchman . ' ' She remembered every Presi- 
dent from John Adams to Theodore Roosevelt, and could 
distinctly recall the double funeral of Adams and Jefferson 
in 1826. 

She had a brother older than herself, also now deceased, 
John Simpers George, who prior and subsequent to 1829 
owned and lived upon a farm on the Reistertown Road, 
Baltimore County, Maryland. This Mr. George, who 
married Miss Mary Whittington, was one of the early 
purchasers of the Washington coachee. His sister Ann 
spent much of her time on the farm, and in warm weather 
was in the habit of sitting in the old carriage with her 
sewing, her knitting or a book. Marrying on December 
17, 1829, and going away to her new home, she does not 
remember to have seen this carriage again, but she has 
often spoken in the intervening years of her brother's 
having once owned the Washington family carriage. She 
was almost blind before her death, but several years ago, 
before her sight began to fail, and when she was living at 
3027 Street, Georgetown, D. C, she unhesitatingly 
identified a photograph of the coachee as a correct represen- 
tation of the Washington carriage her brother used to own. 

The above facts were given by Mrs. Reese to Miss Cor- 
delia Jackson of 3010 street, Georgetown, D. C, daugh- 
ter of Richard Jackson, author of " Chronicles of George- 
town," as items of interest that Mrs. Reese delighted to 
recall. 



Living in Pennsylvania during the latter half of the 
nineteenth century was a showman and collector of curi- 
osities named Roman Ketterer. Though a German by 



17 

birth, he was a patriotic American by adoption, and, Uke 
many another showman, he cherished the project of per- 
petuating his memory by founding a great American 
Revolutionary Museum. Year by year he rigidly put by 
a certain percentage of his income to purchase relics per- 
taining to the War for Independence and to the early 
days of the new Republic. At first he was content to 
acquire simply old-time belongings ; but growing richer 
in both money and experience, he began to search for 
articles having the added value of association. One of 
his purchases was a colonial carriage from the Heston 
family because of a tradition that Washington had once 
ridden in it. Dr. George T. Heston of Newtown, Pa., 
supplied the following description of this coach bought 
by Ketterer at the executor's sale of Isaac Heston 's pos- 
sessions. It was of unknown origin but recorded about 
1750 ; it had two seats running its entire length, windows 
of glass, a rear door and a broad step at the back on which 
two servants stood when the coach was in use. The Doc- 
tor added that there was another Heston coach, with 
memories going back to 1710, owned by the Doctor's 
fourth grandfather, Zebulon Heston, who came to this 
country from England about the year 1680, bringing the 
coach, a gift from the Wharton family, with him. That 
was really the coach of the traditional ride, when Colonel 
Edward Heston is said to have driven General Washing- 
ton about the country on a reconnoitering trip before the 
battle of Trenton. But that venerable carriage dropped 
to pieces in an old coach-house on the Heston estate, many 
years before Ketterer purchased the second one. 

Ketterer had succeeded in collecting many quaint, curi- 
ous, and valuable things when the opportunity for which 
he had waited so long, came. He heard that the Wash- 
ington family carriage was being offered for sale by a man 
named Webster. According to his wife, Ketterer had to 



18 



dispose of quite a number of his curios to raise the money 
for the journey and to buy the coach ; but he did it cheer- 
fully, as the height of his ambition had always been to 
possess something once owned by the great Washington . 
When, at last, he was the carriage's proud possessor, with 
the story of its owners since 1802, he caused his name to 
be branded on one of the steps at the back of the coachee — 
a piece of vanity, if you choose, but invaluable to-day as 
a certain means of identification . The estimation in which 
he held this prize may be gathered from the fact that there- 
after it always headed the list of exhibits on his handbills, 
and that shortly before his death he refused an offer of 
$11,000 for his entire collection, as he valued the Wash- 
ington carriage, alone, at |5,000. 

Needless to say, Ketterer's dream of founding a museum 
was never realized. After his death in 1891, his collection 
was sold at auction in Somerton, Pa., where he had lived, 
and his executor, Martin Van Buren Vanartsdalen of 
Feasterville, Pa., attaching no value to his box of letters, 
receipts, broadsides, pamphlets, memoranda and news- 
paper clippings, claims to have destroyed them after he 
settled up the estate. Ketterer's widow, Bridget Ketterer, 
living with their widowed daughter, Mrs. Paul Worthing- 
ton, at Oxford, Pa., in September of 1903, stated that the 
box of papers given up to the executor contained, among 
other things, data for a complete history of the coachee, 
which Roman Ketterer had always planned to have written, 
and printed in pamphlet form . The widow and the daugh- 
ter gave practically the same facts, although interviewed 
separately. They said Roman owned several carriages, 
which he sold one after another as he heard of one more 
interesting historically that was being offered for sale. 
Neither thought the papers had been destroyed, as Ket- 
terer had always said that they were ' ' worth money in 
themselves." 



19 

J. J. Ketterer of Somerton, Pa., harnessmaker, identi- 
fied a photograph of the coachee as a picture of the 
" Washington Coach " to which he had once done some 
shght repairing for Roman Ketterer. Alonso Terry, a 
blacksmith of Trevose, Pa., branded Ketterer 's name on 
the step of the '* Washington Coach." 

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Krusen of Pittsville, Pa., knew 
Roman Ketterer well . They said the sale of his ' ' Museum ' ' 
was not properly advertised ; had it been put in a Phila- 
delphia paper the things would have brought better prices. 
As it was, two showmen came up to Somerton from that 
city the day after the sale, having just heard of it, both 
anxious to purchase the "Washington Carriage." Mr. 
and Mrs. Krusen both spoke of Roman Ketterer's name 
being branded on one of the steps, and of his having had 
satisfactory proof of its Washington origin. 

The coachee and a number of other exhibits were 
bought by Augustus Egolf of Norristown, Pa., " dealer in 
old-fashioned clocks, antique furniture, andirons, spin- 
ning-wheels, etc." Egolf said when Ketterer traveled 
about the country or exhibited at fairs, he had a gaily- 
decorated tent hung around with sleigh-bells. It was thus 
he exhibited the Washington coachee at Norristown in 
1884 and several years later at the Montgomery County, 
Pa., Centennial. 

Early in 1892, Egolf sent the coachee to M. Thomas 
& Sons, auctioneers, 1525 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. 
While awaiting a purchaser it was borrowed by a Demo- 
cratic Association to be used in one of their torchlight 
parades. Mr. Krusen also spoke of the parade and said 
he rode in the coach. After its return to the auction 
rooms it was sold to the Adam Forepaugh Shoivs in May of 
1892 to be used in their production of the American 
Revolution. Owing to the death of Mr. Forepaugh, this 
intention was never carried out and the George Wash- 



20 

ington coach ee was placed in storage at Lehigh Avenue 
and Edgemont Street, Philadelphia. 

This was the carriage that Mr. Dodge had heard of, 
concerning which he wrote to the Pennsylvania Commis- 
sioners to the World's Columbian Exposition, and which 
Mr. Brownfield was asked to discover if possible; and 
this specific request for a circumstantially designated 
vehicle was the reason for Mr. Brownfield 's action in the 
matter. 

When the present Mount Vernon coach was substituted 
for the coachee and the latter stored away in the stable, 
Mr. Brownfield's good faith was called in question and he 
was twitted with having * ' imposed a clever fake ' ' upon 
the Mount Vernon Ladies Association ; and because of 
their lack of belief in his gift and the rumors set afloat 
concerning himself, he addressed a letter to the Associa- 
tion asking permission to remove the coachee from Mount 
Vernon, as he would not knowingly be a party to a fraud. 
To this request he received the following reply : 

"Mount Vernon on the Potomac, 
" Fairfax County, Virginia, 

'' 3Iay 19, 1903. 
" Mr. Brownfield, 

' ' Dear Sir : Your letter concerning the interesting 
old carriage you very generously presented to the Mount 
Vernon Association, several years ago, has been read 
before Council, and I have been directed to write to you 
on the subject. 

" While regretting the loss of this unique old colonial 
vehicle, the Council feels that it must comply with your 
wishes, which are based upon a high sense of truth and 
integrity. 

' ' With an appreciation of your interest in Mount Ver- 
non, and your generosity to the Association, I have the 
honor to be, 

" Yours truly, 

"Elizabeth B. A. Rathbone, 

' * Vice-Regent for Michigan. ' ' 



21 

Mr. Joseph T. McCaddon, former manager and lessee 
of the Forepaugh Circus, when search was being made to 
prove the genuineness of the coachee, wrote from Buffalo 
to Mr. Brownfield, under date of August 17, 1903: 

' ' The papers you refer to regarding the Washington 
Carriage are filed away with a mass of old business corre- 
spondence at our winter quarters, Bridgeport, Conn., and 
it would be impossible to get access to them until next 
winter." 

Soon after this a disastrous fire broke out at the winter 
quarters referred to, not the smallest loss by which was the 
business papers, etc. , of the circus for many years ; among 
them the documents relating to the coachee. 

While awaiting the gathering up of the data contained 
in this sketch, and having his belief in the authenticity of 
the coachee, Mr. Brownfield removed it from its seclusion 
in the Mount Vernon stable to a storehouse in Wash- 
ington, on Wednesday, December 27, 1905. 



True History of the Coach Now at 
Mount Vernon. 



The persistency with which false history chngs to any 
object for which it has once been manufactured, is no- 
where better exempHfied than in the story of the coach 
now exhibited in the restored coach-house at Mount 
Vernon. 

In 1860 the Prince of Wales, now King of England, 
made a tour of the United States and Canada, reaching 
Philadelphia at four o'clock on the afternoon of Octo- 
ber 9. On the morning of the 10th he visited Girard Col- 
lege and Fairmount Park, and in the afternoon attended 
the races at Point Breeze Park. The Public Ledger for 
October 11, 1860, after describing the races, the visitors, 
etc., says: 

"The old family carriage of Gen. Geo. Washington 
was drawn around the grounds by six gray horses. It 
attracted much attention." 

The Philadelphia Press of the same date goes more into 
detail. It says: 

"On the ground inside the racecourse, a prominent 
object was the old carriage said to belong to General 
Washington, which was drawn by six fine gray horses, 
decorated with red, white and blue plumes. Mr. Fred- 
erick Shower, one of the party having the carriage in 
charge, extended an invitation to the Prince to take a 
ride in it around the course, but the invitation was 
politely declined. After the race was over, the old car- 
riage, with four gentlemen inside, was driven past in 

22 



23 

front of the Prince, when the party inside took off their 
hats. The Prince looked at the carriage as it passed, but 
made no acknowledgment." 

A niece of WilHam Dunlap, carriage-builder, the then 
owner of the carriage, is still living in Philadelphia. At 
the time of the Prince's visit she was a girl of twelve, 
and distinctly remembers standing on the carriage factory 
steps to see the old coach brought out on this occasion. 
She positively asserts, however, that it never belonged to 
Washington but was built for the Powels and that her 
family have always so stated. Her grandfather, Henry 
Dunlap, St., did own a Washington carriage, at one time, 
but it fell to pieces through old age. This fact and the 
resemblance of the Powel to the Washington coach are 
the reasons she assigns for the persistence other people 
have shown in calling the Powel, the Washington coach. 
It is to be noticed that the Press item quoted above con- 
servatively refers to the coach as "said" to belong to 
General Washington. 

The same year, 1860, John Jay Smith, in a work enti- 
tled "American Historical and Literary Curiosities," gives 
a picture of " General Washington's Coach " with this 
note : 

"A controversy exists whether this picture was taken 
from the identical carriage; but all agree in stating that, 
if not the genuine vehicle, it is a fac-simile— two coaches 
having been imported at the same time and of the same 
pattern. The one still in existence in possession of Wm. 
Dunlap, a coach-builder, Pliilada.'" 

The two carriages referred to were those of General 
Washington and of Mrs. Elizabeth Willing Powel, wife 
of Mayor Samuel Powel of Philadelphia. They were 
ordered at the same time and were built in England by 
David Clarke, a Scotchman, who came over with them 
and established himself as a carriage builder on Sixth 



24 

Street between Chestnut and Market Streets, Philadel- 
phia. They were identical, except that General Wash- 
ington's w^as ornamented with four medallions painted 
by Cipriani and representing the four seasons, one on 
each side-panel of the coach, and his arms were emblaz- 
oned on the doors. The Powel coach, on the contrary, 
had plain panels and the Powel arms, of course, were 
emblazoned on its doors. Each coach had the high 
driving seat appropriate to state coaches of that period, 
draped with the voluminous folds of a handsome 
hammer-cloth, and when, somewhat later, Washington 
had an extra set of harness made for his coach, he de- 
sired Mr. Lear to direct Clarke to make with this harness 
a postillion's saddle the cloth of which was to match that 
of the hammer-cloth and be trimmed with the same lace. 
Each coach had also, beneath the seat and about a foot 
lower than its floor, a large feed-box capable of containing 
a bushel or more of oats. The top of this box was its lid, 
divided in the middle and opening on hinges. 

After the death of Mrs. Martha Washington, in 1802, 
an auction sale was held at Mount Vernon, beginning 
on July 20th, to dispose of all " household and kitchen 
furniture." The executors of General Washington 
availed themselves of this opportunity of disposing of all 
the stock, farming implements, camp equipage, horses, 
harness, one elegant chariot and a coachee, with a " va- 
riety of other articles too numerous to particularize." 
This ' ' elegant chariot ' ' was the state coach already 
described and it was bought at the auction sale by George 
Washington Parke Custis of Arlington. It afterward 
became the property of the Right Reverend William 
Meade, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
Virginia. The end of this vehicle is graphically given 
by the Bishop in his " Old Churches, Ministers and 
Families in Virginia ' ' : 



25 

"His old English coach, in which himself and Mrs. 
Washington not only rode in Fairfax County but traveled 
through the entire length and breadth of the land, was 
so faithfully executed, that at the conclusion of that long 
journey, its builder who came over with it, was proud to 
be told by the General, that not a nail or screw had 
failed. It so happened, in a way I need not state, that 
this coach came into my hands about fifteen years after 
the death of General Washington. In the course of 
time, from disuse, it being too heavy for these latter 
days, it began to decay and give away. Becoming an 
object of desire to those who delight in relics, I caused it 
to be taken to pieces and distributed among admiring 
friends of Washington who visited my house, and also 
among a number of female associations for benevolent 
and rehgious objects, which associations, at their fairs 
and on other occasions, made a large profit by converting 
the fragments into walking-sticks, picture-frames and 
snuff-boxes. About two-thirds of one of the wheels thus 
produced one hundred and forty dollars. There can be 
no doubt that at its dissolution, it yielded more to the 
cause of charity than it cost its builder at its first erection. 
Besides other mementoes of it, I have in my study, in 
the form of a sofa, the hind seat, on which the General 
and his lady were wont to sit." 

This entirely disposes of Washington's English-Clarke- 
built coach of which the Powel coach was a counterpart, 
ordered, built, and imported at the same time. 

Let us now trace the history of the second coach. 
Mayor Powel of Philadelphia died in 1793 of yellow 
fever. His widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Willing Powel, hav- 
ing no children, adopted her nephew, John Hare, who 
at her earnest request added Powel to his patronymic. 
Their residence was at Powelton, now known as West 
Philadelphia. Mrs. Powel used her coach daily in going 
to church and in visiting the neighboring gentry. As 
she and her coachman grew old together she had the 
high driving-seat removed some time between 1817 and 



26 

1825, and the present low coachman's seat with arms 
like a chair, lest the faithful old man should jolt off. 
The alteration was done by George Heyberger of Phila- 
delphia, and his name appears on the springs upon 
which the seat rests. It is a seat wholly out of keeping 
with the rest of the carriage and the fashions of the cen- 
tury in which it was built. Furthermore, in lowering 
the seat, the ancient feed-box has been utilized as a plat- 
form upon which to fasten the new seat, thus destroying 
its usefulness as a feed-box. This, however, did not dis- 
turb Mrs. Powel, as she no longer used her carriage for 
long journeys but only for church going and in visiting, 
consequently there was no need of carrying bushels of 
oats to feed the horses on the way. Mrs. Powel died in 
1830, after which time Colonel John Hare Powel, her 
heir, seldom used the coach, but kept it in the old coach- 
house at Powelton for about a quarter of a century. 
During this time he was fairly persecuted by visi- 
tors insisting that it was General Washington's 
coach. This he always denied, pointing out the absence 
of painted medallions and the presence of the Powel coat 
of arms. Early in the fifties the barn at Powelton was 
burned by incendiaries. Some time after, the Powels 
moved from Powelton and Colonel Powel stored the old 
coach with Wm. Dunlap, a coach builder of Philadelphia, 
to get it out of the way, not to exhibit it. Finally, in 
1855, Colonel Powel gave the coach to Dunlap, as " a relic 
of antiquity." As long as Wm. Dunlap lived he steadily 
denied the story of its having been Washington's, and 
always gave the Powels as its original and sole owners 
until the time it came into his possession; though he 
seems to have loaned it or rented it to circuses, shows, 
and parades. About 1871 or 1872 John Wanamaker of 
Philadelphia rented it for part of his exhibit in a grand 
street parade, and would have purchased it could the 



27 

Dunlaps have furnished conclusive proofs of its having 
once belonged to Washington. On the contrary, when 
Mr. Wanamaker and his then partner, Mr. J. R. Hough- 
ton, looked into the matter, they were convinced that 
Washington's coach had been taken to pieces by Bishop 
Meade more than half a century before that date, and 
that the coach offered by the Dunlaps had originally 
belonged to the Powels. Numerous other persons in- 
tended to buy the coach, but each and all declined upon 
looking carefully into its history. Proofs of many of 
these futile attempts to turn it into a Washington coach 
are held by the Powel family and make interesting 
reading. 

During the early part of the Centennial Exposition in 
Philadelphia the Dunlap-Powel coach occupied a con- 
spicuous position in the Main Building, placarded as 
"Washington's White Chariot," and a colored man 
dressed in the white and scarlet livery of the General's 
household was generally on hand to answer questions and 
sell photographs of it. At a later period it was moved to 
the Carriage Annex . Two statements were put in evidence 
by its then owner, Mr. Wm. Wharton, Jr., 308 Walnut 
Street, to prove its authenticity. 

First Proof. 

" Philadelphia, Pa., 

"May 27, 1876. 
" Mr. C. Wharton, 

' * Sir : In answer to your question as to what I know 
of the old carriage now on exhibition at No. 1203 North 
Forty-first St., in this city. I answer this — Thirty-four 
years ago, I went to live with Mr. John Hare Powel. 

' ' He put me in charge of the house that contained the 
carriage in question, and said to me, ' I want you to take 
care of that carriage, as it belonged to General Wash- 
ington, and you may show it to visitors as such.' He, Mr. 
Powel, inherited the same from his aunt. Miss Powel, 



28 

who had some family connection with the Washington 
family. I lived in all eight years with Mr. John Hare 
Powel, and was instructed by him, that both myself and 
my daughters should show this carriage as having been 
General Washington's. Many persons came to see it. You 
may depend upon the truth of this statement. I do not 
know any person now living who had charge of that car- 
riage except myself, or who knows as much about it as 
I do. 

"Signed Elizabeth Steel. 

"Sworn and subscribed before me this 27th day of 
May, A. D. 1876. Chas H. Lungren, 

"Alderman.'" 

The careful historian notes three palpable misstate- 
ments in the above — John Hare Powel 's aunt was Mrs. 
not "Miss" Powel; the Powels were not connections 
of the Washingtons; a number of John Hare Powel's 
descendants were living at the time this statement was 
sworn to, who would surely know more about the matter 
than a servant would. 

Second Proof. 

" Philadelphia, Pa., 

" June 12, 1876. 
"Mr. Wharton, 

"Sir: It gives me great pleasure to add my testi- 
mony, in relation to the carriage sold by me to Mr. Wm. 
Wharton, Jr. 

" I hereby certify that it is the very identical carriage 
that I received from Mr. John Hare Powel in the year 
eighteen hundred and fifty-five. It is the same one that 
occupied the stone building on the Powel estate and is 
the one spoken of in her affidavit by Mrs. Steel. 

" Signed Henry Dunlap. 
" Witnesses 

"C. Wharton [Brother, now deceased, to Wm. 

Wharton.] 
" E. H. HuLTZ." [Secretary, now deceased, to Wm. 
Wharton.] 



29 

As a matter of fact, the coach from Powelton was 
deposited with and afterward given to William Dunlap, 
the father of Henry. In reahty, Mr. Dunlap does not 
state that the coach in question belonged to Washington 
or had ever been his property; he simply identifies it as 
the one that formerly occupied a certain building on the 
Powel estate, and as the same one sworn to by Mrs. Steel. 

Again the Powels were appealed to by intending pur- 
chasers and again Mr. Samuel Powel, eldest son of John 
Hare Powel, stated that it was his great-aunt's coach in 
which he had often ridden with her when he was a little 
lad. 

One man, however, attached enough importance to 
these so-called proofs as to decide upon the purchase of 
the coach, and that was Benjamin Richardson, a well-to- 
do farmer of West Morrisania, New York. He had 
already begun to indulge his desire to be known as a col- 
lector, by purchasing what he considered curios and relics. 
That even he was not entirely satisfied as to its former 
Washington ownership, can be gathered from a post- 
script to the letter in which he authorizes Mr. S. F. Mer- 
rill, Superintendent Main Building Annex, Centennial 
Grounds, to secure the carriage for him. The letter is dated 
November 28, 1876, and the postscript reads: "I shall 
have to examine to see that it was Washington's carriage 
with your assistance." He bought the Centennial coach 
for $650 and thereafter celebrated the 22d of February 
by riding in it, dressed in an old Continental uniform. 
Richardson was known as an eccentric and his champion- 
ship of the coach was looked upon as a harmless fad, until 
he procured its admission into one of the great Revolu- 
tionary commemorative processions in New York, when 
a vigorous protest was made by historians, and it was not 
in the great military parade at the celebration of Washing- 
ton's Inauguration, New York City, April 30, 1889; but 



30 

in the Civic and Industrial Parade, next day, it formed 
part of the exhibit of 1,500 colored men and was men- 
tioned in the official program as " one of George Washing- 
ton's coaches (or at least a very old coach, similar to the 
one owned by Washington) ." 

In 1888 Richardson loaned the coach to the Buckeye 
Buggy Company of Columbus, Ohio, for their section in 
the parade celebrating the centennial of the first settle- 
ment of that State; but the manager of the company 
freely stated that they had no proof it had ever belonged 
to Washington, outside of Mr. Richardson's word, and 
they simply " took it on faith." Later that same year, 
Richardson died and bequeathed the coach to his daughter, 
Sarah Jane, and to his granddaughter, Ella Birdsall, now 
Mrs. Gouverneur of Brooklyn, New York, and "their 
heirs and assigns forever." Though litigation began 
immediately over the real estate Richardson left, his 
heirs appeared to have cared nothing for the coach and 
other curiosities. When Sarah Richardson died she be- 
queathed her interest in the coach and relics to Mrs. 
Michael Karam and to Miss Selina Birdsall, grand- 
daughters of the late Benjamin Richardson. About 1895 
or 1896 Michael Karam bought out the interest of Mrs. 
Gouverneur, who had acted as her grandfather's secretary 
and knew the history of each so-called relic, and of Mrs. 
Selina Birdsall Cooper in the coach and curiosities, pay- 
ing $250 for the coach. Four or five years ago, however, 
the heirs claimed to have received but $100 for the entire 
collection including the coach. 

The coach was stored in a barn on Mott Street, New 
York City, until the owner of the property, Mr. Augustus 
Frey, dealer in real estate, insurance, stocks, bonds, and 
commercial paper, sold the land, and the coach having 
to be moved, Frey proposed that he should try and sell 
it. He offered it to the " Mount Vernon Association " 



31 

for the modest' sum of $10,000. After investigating the 
matter, they decKned to make the purchase because, to 
quote Mr. Frey's own words, "they beheve it was the 
property of a neighbor of General Washington, a Colonel 
Powel." In June, 1901, however, he succeeded in sell- 
ing it to the Mount Vernon Society of Detroit, Michigan, 
for $350, clearing about one hundred dollars on the 
transaction as he had advanced Mr. Karam $250 or $275 
and never made any further accounting. Later that 
same year, Mr. Frey died. The coach was taken to 
Hoboken for repairs and thence transported by rail and 
boat to Mount Vernon to be installed in the restored 
coach-house, where it has ever since been exhibited 
advertised by a large sign bearing the legend : 

Carriage 

Exhibited at the 

Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 

1876, as 

"WASHINGTON'S WHITE CHARIOT." 

a discreetness of wording that has aroused the curiosity 
of more than one visitor. 

The history of the negotiations between Frey and the 
Mount Vernon Society of Detroit is given by the Vice- 
Regent for Michigan in her annual reports. 

1897. 

"The Council may remember that two years ago 
photographs w^ere sent to Mr. Dodge, of Washington's 
old state coach. Since that time every effort has been 
made to find the coach, but it has lain ' perdu ' until 
quite recently, when a visitor from Harlem, N. Y., gave 
Mr. Dodge the address of Mr. Frey, whom he asserted 
had purchased the coach at the sale .of the effects of Cap- 
tain Benjamin Richardson, a collector of relics, who 
originally owned it. Mr. Dodge went on to New York and 
interviewed Mr. Frey and saw the old coach, which he 
thinks is undoubtedly genuine. Negotiations are pend- 



32 

ing for the purchase of the interesting relic, which we 
fondly hope may be consummated in time for us to wel- 
come the wanderer home before the adjournment of 
Council." 

1898. 

"The Vice-Regent reports $25 received from Mr. 
Henry Fairfield Osborn, for the Coach fund. 

" The State Coach is still a deferred hope. The agent, 
who denies any personal interest in the matter, has set 
the price at $10,000, and the Vice-Regent has for six 
months let him severely alone. The Vice-Regent makes 
an appeal to the Vice-Regents of other States to assist 
her in raising the necessary amount for the purchase of 
the coach." 

1901. 

* ' The Vice-Regent for Michigan reports the final out- 
come of several years of investigation and search for 
Washington's state coach. The one exhibited at Phila- 
delphia Centennial of 1876 as Washington's coach was 
traced to its present owner about three years ago, through 
the enterprise of our Superintendent, Mr. Dodge. The 
price asked at the time was $10,000, which put it beyond 
our reach. Two years of waiting for a purchaser at that 
price, or possibly a doubt arising as to the ability to 
prove its authenticity, had so depressing an efi'ect upon 
the owner that last summer he made overtures to the 
Vice-Regent for Michigan and offered the coach for 
$2,500. The purchase was then seriously considered by 
the Regent and several of the Vice-Regents, and it only 
failed of consummation because a link was missing in 
the proof of its having belonged to George Washington. 
Sworn testimony was not wanting to prove that Mr. John 
Hare Powel, of Philadelphia, who had inherited the 
coach from his great-aunt, Mrs. Samuel Powel, said the 
coach in question belonged to George Washington, but 
the sequel proved that several persons have been guilty 
of false swearing. Fortunately our wise Regent and saga- 
cious Superintendent advised further investigation before 



33 

making the purchase, and we were rewarded by obtain- 
ing a communication from Mr. Robert Hare Powel, son 
of Mr. John Hare Powel. This letter I will read you in 
full. While Mr. Powel's letter shows conclusively that 
the coach in question never belonged to George Washing- 
ton, he also demonstrates that there is no state coach that 
was Washington's in existence. Mr. Powel also shows 
that the Powel coach was a twin brother or sister, so to 
speak, of the famous ' White Chariot,' having been 
made upon the same model and at the same time, and 
from the intimacy existing between the Washingtons 
and the Powels the probability is great that the General 
occasionally rode in the Powel coach. The Powel coach 
can now be obtained for $350, and the Vice-Regent for 
Michigan only waits for the sanction of the Regent and 
Vice-Regents to send a check to the owner, which will 
consummate the purchase." 

1902. 
' ' The Michigan State Report is mainly concerned 
with the consummation of the purchase of the old car- 
riage which was exhibited in 1876 as ' Washington's 
White Chariot.' The carriage was purchased in 1901 
for $350, and was then put in the hands of a carriage 
maker in New York for necessary repairs. The expense 
was met by the Vice-Regent for Michigan with funds 
contributed by the Detroit Mount Vernon Society." 

In a recent interview concerning the present Mount 
Vernon coach, the Vice-Regent for Michigan revived the 
claim of its being a Washington carriage, by citing a 
tradition that had been told to the Association, that at 
one time during some public function attended by both 
General AVashington and Mrs. Samuel Powel, their car- 
riages were accidentally exchanged, and no one was able, 
at the present day, to state definitely whether the mistake 
was ever rectified. As Washington's "White Chariot" 
was as well known as himself, even without the sure 
identification of his coat of arms, the searcher after truth 
can not be expected to consider this anecdote seriously. 



34 

Now upon what rests the authority for calhng the coach 
at present exhibited at Mount Vernon, "Washington's 
White Chariot "? Upon the unsupported affidavit of an 
illiterate woman, Elizabeth Steel, who claims to have 
been a servant in the family of Colonel John Hare Powel 
from 1842 to 1850, but whose sworn statement, in 1876, 
outside the question of the original owner of the coach, 
contains three misstatements, easily proved as such. 
While not denying that she may have been a servant in 
the dairy, at the farm-house, or about the large dwelling, 
the Powel family positively assert that no woman was ever 
employed about the stables or in the coach-house, and 
describe Elizabeth Steel as being a ' ' talkative old per- 
son " whose " memory was probably very defective." 

Thus in more than a hundred years one person authori- 
tatively claims the disputed coach as having belonged to 
Washington; against scores of historians, magazine and 
newspaper writers, together with the Powel family who, 
generation after generation, have courteously and patiently 
testified to its being a Powel coach . One man of all the 
intending purchasers accepted the Steel statement as 
satisfactory, and he is known to have been wanting in 
judgment, eccentric, and illy balanced mentally. Even 
he did not consider it sufficient, but declared his inten- 
tion of seeking proof. 

The coach itself bears none of the identifying marks 
that history assigns to Washington's coach; there are no 
painted medallions, no emblazoning on the doors, indeed 
were they submitted to the searching test of X-rays, the 
Powel coat of arms, if it has not been sandpapered off, 
would be found, for that telltale ornamentation was 
painted off long ago. 

It is respectfully submitted, therefore, that in view of 
all the facts assembled above, together with the statement 



35 

of the Vice-Regent for Michigan in her report for 1901, 
that the coach offered by Augustus Frey was of Powel and 
not of Washington origin, that if the Powel coach is to 
be retained in the Washington coach-house, its ambigu- 
ous sign should be superseded by one giving its proper 
designation as a Poiuel coach, that visitors be no longer 
misled ; while the authenticity of the coachee should in 
some way be acknowledged, since there is no proof against 
its claim of having once been a Washington carriage and 
much circumstantial evidence that the claim is true. 



Chronology of the Powel Coach. 

About 'O^iyS*^ . . . — Imported from England by Mrs. Powel, the 
wife of Mayor Samuel Powel of Philadel- 
phia. 

1830 — Mrs. Powel died and the carriage became the 

property of Col. John Hare Powel. 

1855 — Removed from Powelton and stored at the 

carriage factory of Wm. Dunlap, 476 York 
Road, Philadelphia. 

Some time prior to 1876 — Sold by Henry Dunlap, son of Wm. Dunlap, 
to Wm. Wharton, Jr. 

Nov. 28, 1876 .... —Sold by Wm. Wharton, Jr., to Capt. Ben- 
jamin Richardson. 

1888 — Capt. Richardson died, and his daughter 

Sarah Jane and his granddaughter Ella 
Birdsall, afterward Mrs. Gouverneur, in- 
herited it. When Sarah Jane Richardson 
died, she bequeathed her interest in the 
coach to Mrs. Michael Karam and to 
Selina Birdsall, afterward Mrs. Joseph 
Cooper. 

About 1895 or 1896 . . — Michael Karam bought out the interest of 
Ella Birdsall Gouverneur and of Seline 
Birdsall Cooper. 

About 1898 — Michael Karam entrusted the sale of the 

coach to Augustus Frey. 

1901 — Augustus Frey sold it to the Mount Vernon 

Society of Detroit, Michigan, and it was 
deposited by them at Mount Vernon. 

1908 — Still in coach-house at Mount Vernon. 



Documentary History In the Washing- 
ton Coach Controversy. 



" Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in the Olden 
Time,'' by John F. Watson, 18^2. 

Vol. I, p. 209. "The most splendid looking carriage 
ever in Philadelphia, at that time was that used by Gen- 
eral Washington, while President. There was in it, at 
least to my young mind, a greater air of stately grandeur 
than I have ever seen since. It was very large, so much 
so, as to make four horses an indispensable appendage. 
It had been previously imported for Governor Richard 
Penn. It was of a cream color, with much more of gilded 
carving in the frame than is since used. Its strongest 
attractions were the relief ornaments on the panels, they 
being painted medallion pictures of playing cupids, or 
naked children. That carriage I afterwards saw, in 1804- 
5, in my store-yard at New Orleans, where it lay an out- 
cast in the weather ! — the result of a bad speculation in 
a certain Doctor Young, who had bought it at public sale, 
took it out to New Orleans for sale, and could find none 
to buy it, where all were content with plain volantes. 

" It became in time a kind of outhouse, in which fowls 
roosted ; and in the great battle of New Orleans it stood 
between the combatants, and was greatly shot-ridden ! Its 
gooseneck crane has been laid aside for me." 

P. 581. "Washington's coach was presented to him, 
it is said, by Louis XVI, King of France, as a mark of 
personal esteem and regard. Others have said it had been 
brought out for the late Governor Penn. It was cream- 
colored, globular in its shape, and capacious within; 
ornamented in the French style, with Cupids supporting 
festoons and wreaths of flowers beautifully covered with 
fine glass, very white and dazzling to the eye of youth 

36 



37 

and simplicity in such matters. It was drawn sometimes 
by four, but in common by two, very elegant Virginia 
bays, with long switch-tails and splendid harness, and 
driven by a tall and muscular German Fritz. On the 
death of Washington, this coach found its way to New 
Orleans, after the purchase of Louisiana and there being 
found at a plantation in the time of Pakenham's inva- 
sion, got riddled with shot and destroyed. The chief 
of its iron work has since been used in the palisade to 
H. Milne's grave." 

Vol. Ill, p. 128. * "There were two coaches of Wash- 
ington's, as although Watson and Lossing apparently de- 
scribe the same coach, they give different statements of 
its origin and its end. Watson says it was either pre- 
sented to him by Louis XVI, or was imported for Gover- 
nor Richard Penn; while Lossing in Mount Vernon and 
its Associations, says Washington imported it from Eng- 
land, etc. Watson says it was sold after Washington's 
death, and as early as 1804-5, he saw it in New Orleans, 
where it lay neglected and was finally destroyed in the 
British invasion and part of its iron was reserved for 
Mr. Watson, and the remainder was used around a grave; 
while Lossing says the English coach was purchased by 
the late Mr. Custis of Arlington when the effects of the 
General was sold after Mrs. Washington's death, and 
finally became the property of the Rt. Rev. Mr. Meade, 
who had it taken apart for souvenirs. 

' ' Washington had three vehicles — one a post-chaise for 
traveling and the country; one a family coach; and 
another a chariot for state purposes. All were cream- 
colored, with three figures on the panels." 



" History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884-," by J. Thos. Scharf 
and Thompson Westcott, 1884-. 

P. 473. "On the 4th of March, Washington again 
took the oath of office as President of the United States. 
* * * He proceeded to the State House in an elegant 

• This work is in 3 vols. The 1st and 2d have been revised by Willis P. Hazard 
and the 3d entirely written by him, 1898. 



38 

white coach, drawn by six superb white horses having on 
its four sides beautiful designs of the four seasons painted 
by Cipriani." 



" The First American, His Homes and His Households ,' ' 
by Leila Herbert, 1900. 

[Opposite p. 44 is a picture of the Franklin House, 
Franklin Square, New York, with the cream-colored 
coach before the door. The panels and door show embel- 
lishments, the driver's seat is so high as to be almost on a 
level with the top of the coach, and it is draped with the 
ample folds of a hammer-cloth.] 

P. 59. "The President's fine cream-colored coach 
arrived while he lived in the Franklin house. Capacious, 
it was ponderous, but beautiful — the Four Seasons painted 
on its panels, the Washington coat of arms on the doors. 
Six shining bay horses drew it when he drove to Federal 
Hall to deliver his first message to Congress." 



As the Washington coach built by Clarke was taken to 
pieces for relics some time prior to 1820 and as the art of 
daguerreotypy was not discovered until 1839 and pho- 
tography not until many years later, there is probably no 
authentic picture extant of the Washington coach. The 
illustration referred to is by Harry Fenn and appears also 
in Harper's Magazine for October, 1899. A letter to Mr. 
Fenn in February, 1906, as to his authority for so depict- 
ing Washington's coach, elicited the following reply: 

" 284 Park St., Upper Montclair, N. J. 
"Ask me an easier one. The hundreds of drawings 
that I have made since 1899 has put the Franklin Square 
drawing into the limbo of the past. And from whence I 
obtained the authority I can not for the life of me recollect. 
The most likely explanation is the fact that I was born in 



S9 

England and from ten j'-ears up I was forever sketching, 
and the ' Hammer-cloth ' was so familiar to me as a boy 
connected with every coach of state, that in making the 
drawing in question I was fully convinced that the ham- 
mer-cloth would be the correct thing and any swell coach 
sent over from England would surely have one. Probably 
this is the explanation and a very natural one. 

" Cordially, Harry Fenn. 

"Tuesday, 10 p. m." 

As early as 1750 we find entries in Washington's book 
of expenses for the modest vehicle known as a "pole 
chair," for which he bought a new set of harness at a 
cost of 10£ 15s. Ten years later, he records a charge of 
lis. "ferriage of one Chariot, 6 Horses and 2 Men, 
driver included " ; and in the same year, 1760, he begins 
to pay a tax of 1£ 10s. for his chariot and riding-chair. 
In 1763-he has his riding-chair relined, the work being 
done by Thomas Boseley. In 1764 and in 1772 the same 
vehicle has to be repaired, and in 1791 he pays Col. Wil- 
liam Deakins 18s. for " 12 Glasses for my Carriage made 
at the New Bremen Glass Manufactory." 

There is a record, also, of two occasions upon which he 
gave away a carriage. While attending the first Conti- 
nental Congress in Philadelphia, 1774, he gives 40£ for 
" a Chaize for my mother " ; and after the death of his 
nephew, George Augustine Washington, he writes to the 
widow : ' ' The carriage which I sent to Mount Vernon for 
your use, I never intended to reclaim, and therefore now 
making a more formal present of it, it may be sent for 
whenever it suits your convenience, and be considered as 
your own." There is also record of his having sold four 
carriages. Lund Washington, writing to him from Mount 
Vernon, September 2, 1778, says: " I received from Capt. 
Lewis 200£ for the Phseton which was the price agreed 
for before it was delivered." Mr. Mitchell in 1780 sold 



40 

Mrs. Washington's old coach to the builders from whom a 
new one was purchased for her. As the third carriage to be 
sold was not the personal property of General Washington, 
the proceeds were turned over to the Government. Ilere 
are extracts from two letters concerning it : 

" I have sold the old Chariot, which formerly belonged 
to the Presidents of Congress, for 45£, to Mr. Brock't Liv- 
ingston. As it had never been in your possession, I had 
some doubt whether it would be proper for me to dispose 
of it. But upon consulting with Colo. Hamilton he was 
fully of opinion that it was proper. The above price is 
the most I could get, as there was no harness to it, and 
the Coachmaker demanded 40£ to repair it and make a 
new sett of common harness." — Tobias Lear to the Presi- 
dent, New York, September 20, 1790. 

" The sale of the old Charriot was proper, for although 
the price is small, it will be so much saved for the pub- 
lic." — Washington to Lear, September 27, 1790, Mount 
Vernon. 

Particulars of the fourth vehicle to be sold can be gath- 
ered from the letters of Washington, at Mount Vernon, 
to Clement Biddle in Philadelphia : 

" Be so good as to ask Mr. Simmons what he has done 
with my old Coach and make the most you can of it." 
[August 23, 1797.] 

" I have lately received a letter from a Mr. Small of 
Philadelphia informing me that the coach I used in the 
City was yet unsold; — that it was accumulating ex- 
pense; — and not more than two hundred dollars had 
been offered for it, when according to his acct. $300 was 
the value fixed thereon. 

" I intended to have sent his letter to you, but it has 
been mislaid or lost — I shall beg the favor of you, how- 
ever, to sell or cause it to be sold for whatever it will 
fetch. Who limited the price to $300. I know not; — but 
took it for granted that it had been disposed of many 
days ago." [November 25, 1797.] 



41 

" If you conceive any advantage will result from a 
delay in the sale of the old Coach until the Spring it will 
be quite agreeable to me that it should be postponed. — To 
avoid the accumulating expense of House Room, and the 
injury such articles sustain by lying and often by neglect 
and tossing about was my inducement to the disposal of it 
now. — But it rests with you to choose the time." [Janu- 
ary 29, 1798.] 

" I have already left it to your own judgment to fix a 
period for selling the old Coach, and I repeat it, you will 
have perceived, however, that the expenses thereon are 
accumulating; whilst in all probability the carriage is 
growdng worse and worse in its appearance. The account 
which has been exhibited for keeping it (if the charge is 
not unusual) must be paid. — To me it appears very 
high." [March 3, 1798.] 

" I am sorry to find that the old Coach is likely to find 
so bad a market. — This was shipped by Mr. Dandridge 
at the time I left Philadelphia. — As the case now is, it 
will be better to break it up for the old Iron — than keep 
it longer on expenses." [June 17, 1798.] 

' ' For my Sentiments respecting the old Coach * * * 
I refer to my last of the above date, — 17th June." [July 
29, 1798.] 

" Much has been said of Washington's equipages, when 
at New York, and of his having four, and sometimes six 
horses before his carriage, wath servants and outriders in 
rich livery. Such style we would premise was usual at 
the time both in England and the Colonies. * * * It 
does not appear, however, that Washington ever indulged 
in it through ostentation. When he repaired to the Hall 
of Congress, at his inauguration, he was drawn by a single 
pair of horses in a chariot presented for the occasion, on 
the panels of which were emblazoned the arms of the 
United States. ' ' [" Life of Washington ' ' by Washington 
Irving, Vol. V, p. 19.] This was perhaps the "two- 
horse phaeton" of Jacob Hiltzheimer's diary and the 
' ' post-chaise ' ' whose first mention by Washington in his 
diary is: " December 2, 1789. [at New York.] — Exer- 
cised in the Post-Chaise with Mrs. Washington to-day." 



42 

" Speaking of Carriages, — I have left my Coach to 
receive a thorough repair against I return (which I expect 
will happen before the first of December) and I request 
you will visit Mr. Clarke (into whose hands it is com- 
mitted) often, to see it well done; and that I may not be 
disappointed in the time allowed him for the completion, 
which is by the 25th of November." — Washington to Lear, 
September S, 1790. 

In the Washington correspondence, Library of Con- 
gress, may be found the following letters : 

" Philadelphia 13th September 1790. 
" The Hon'ble 

' ' George Washington 
"Sir: 

' ' Your favor of the 9th Instant I have received — with 
Respect to Mr. Morris's Coach, he has no Coat of Arms 
thereon, but a Cypher on Doors, back & front, with 
a Chryst over the Cypher, and no enclosure — the ground 
colour of your Coach being White, the silver in our 
opinion will have but a bad effect — Should you prefer 
continuing the seasons as already on the carriage, on the 
Doors, front, & Back, Your Chryst painted on the four 
quarter Pannels, all enclosed within the original Ovals, 
which corresponds with the mouldings of the Coach, 
would in our opinion look well, but should you prefer 
having your Cypher & Chryst in Silver, in place of the 
Seasons, it would look extremely well within the original 
Mouldings, & on a deep Silver Grey or purple Ground, 
and in our Opinion preferable to the other. 

' ' Inclosed we hand you a draft of a Cypher done in the 
same Manner with that of Mr. Morris's, also a pattern of 
the Cloth for the lining of the Coach, which we hope will 
meet with your approbation — Should you prefer the 
silver Cypher & Chryst, we would recommend having the 
Cypher only on front. Doors & Back, &the Chryst on the 
four quarter pannels with Ovals reversed from what they 
now are, by this we mean having the oval o this way — 
every attention in our power will also be paid to the har- 
ness, & we would recommend the following to make the 



43 

Coach uniform — a pair of plated handles to the Doors, 
plated Brass buckles & plated mouldings round the roof 
— there being no Glass or Frame in front of the Coach, 
would wish to know if we are to fix one in — We have 
the honor to be 

' ' With the greatest Respect 
"Sir 

" Your Obed't Servants 

"Daniel and Francis Clark." 

^ ^ Repairs for the Coach. 

Taking out the Creans and reasing higher & ^ £7100 

a pair of new Shafts \ 

A new iron Coach box Sett 3. 15. 

A new RufF Leather & new Conish .... 4. 12. 6 

Hnning the Boady with 113^ yards of Super- ) «f,, , o ^ 

fine Cloath at 37 — 6 pr yard ) "" '"^l oqko 

Leaces Glass string &c' a 8. 14. f • ^^- ^- "^ 

making and putting in Do 8. 10. Oj 

A new fulle trimed hamer Cloath 12. 0. 

repairs wanted to the boady & 2 pair of new hinges .... 2. 0. 

A pair of new double insid foulding Steps 5. 10. 

4 new bands to the hoobs of the wheels 0. 10. 

Painting the Boady and high Varnishing 5. 10. 

Boarder rond all the pannels from £8. to £115 

Ornaments & Coats of Arms 4. 10. 

Gilding the frame work Solid 6. 0. 

Painting Carriage and wheels 2. 10. 

Picking in Do 1. 10. 

8 Vinison Winds 22. 10. 

Gilding the Springs 2. 5. 

A sett of Silke festoon Curtains with fringes ) 8 0" 

and tosals to all the insid of the Ruff . . ) 

" To Mes'rs. D. & Francis Clark 

" Philadelphia. 
"Sir, 

" From the best judgment I can form of the repairs and 
alterations to make in my old Coach (under the statement 
and opinions given in your letter of the 13th instant) I 
feel most inclined to give you the following directions 
for your procedure that no delay or disappointment may 
happen. 

" The coulour is to be as at present; — but to be neatly 
painted and highly varnished. — 

"The Seasons (which are now on the carriage) is to 
be continued on the doors, front and back — and my crest 



44 

without any cipher is to be on the four quarter panels ; 
all to be enclosed with the original ovals. — If it is thought 
best that the crest should be painted (as Silver does not 
show on a light ground) they may be painted. — But quere, 
whether if some ornamental painting within the Oval, and 
around the Silver crests, (the colours of which should 
form a contrast to the silver and not be inconsistent with 
other parts of the work) might not look well. This is 
only suggested, for you may have painted, or silver crests 
put on according to your own judgment of the propriety 
& uniformity. — 

" The Seasons if they should require it (and a masterly 
hand can be employed) must be repaired, — or at least 
freshened in their appearance to make them correspond 
with the fresh painting of the Coach, & as festoons were 
on the coach before, ought they not to be there again if 
the seasons &c. are retained. — I approve of the pattern 
sent as lining for the Coach and desire you may use it. — 
Plated handles to the doors — plated brace buckles, and 
plated mouldings around the roof should be added to 
make one part correspond with the other. — A Glass in 
front must unquestionably be provided. — In all other 
respects you are to observe the directions which were 
given when I saw you in Philadelphia. — 

" I am, &c. 

"Geo. Washington. 

'' Mount Vernon 

" September 17th 1790." 

"I have paid several visits to Mr. Clarke since my arrival, 
and find he is at work on the Coach and harness, which 
he assures me shall be completed by the middle of Novem- 
ber; and from appearances I have no doubt of it. He 
has applied to me for the crest of your arms which he 
says you directed him to put on the Coach and harness, 
and I have accordingly furnished him with it, from an 
impression of the seal which I have in my possession . — 
He wishes to know if you would have the motto of your 
Arms over the crest, or only a wreath round the plate on 
which it is painted similar to those round the Seasons." — 
Lear to Washington, Philadelphia, October 24-, 1790. 



45 

Most of Washington's equipages were built in England 
and several were imported through the firm of " Robert 
Gary, Esqr. & Co. of London," a house that handled all 
of his exported tobacco and attended to much of his 
English business ; but there came a time when the coach- 
makers of Philadelphia could compete with their foreign 
fellow-craftsmen and we are not surprised to find the 
General seeking the aid of a trusted friend, John Mitchell 
of Philadelphia, in the selection and purchase of an 
American-built coach. Washington was one of those 
rare characters who knew exactly what he wanted and 
could state his requirements in precise terms, from the 
qualifications of a general to the color of a hair-ribbon, 
from the rotation of crops to be observed on his farm to 
the style of a silver plate for the door of his pew in old 
Christ Church, Alexandria. Accordingly his instructions 
for this new vehicle were minute; and Mr. Mitchell 
seems to have been both zealous and particular; witness 
the following correspondence : 

Washington to Mitchell. 

" Headquarters, Morris Town, 

20 March, 1780. 
"D'r Sir, 

" You will do me a favor by enquiring & letting me 
know as soon as possible, if any good coach maker in 
Phila. or German Town (Bringhurst for instance) will 
engage to make me a genteel plain chariot with real 
[lead?] Harness for four horses to go with two postilions — 
I wish to know the terms and in how short a time it can 
be done — I also beg to know if the harness could be soon 
had without the carriage. That the workmen may be at 
no loss to fix a just price on these things on acc't of the 
fluctuating & uncertain state of our curr'y he may make 
his estimates in specie which shall either be paid him 
immediately upon delivery of the work — or in paper 
money at the difference of exchange then prevailing — 



46 

be it little or much — this will put the matter upon so 
clear & unequivocal a footing that he can be at no loss in 
fixing prices nor be under the smallest inducem't to ask 
an enormous price in order to g'd. against the evil conse- 
quences of depreciation. * * * 

"P. S. I beg the favor of you to enquire further 
whether nails & other kind of mounting, & trimmings, 
necessary to the lining and finishing of a chariot could 
be had in any of the shops — or from any of the coach 
makers in Phila. — there is a good workman at Springfield 
(in this State) but he has not this kind of furniture by 
him necessary to compleat a char't." 

Mitchell to Washington. 

"Phila. 25 March, 1780. 
"D'r. Sir 

"Your Excellency's favors of the 17th & 20th were 
delivered to me yesterday, have made particular Inquiry 
at the several Coach Makers and have found a Neat Gen- 
teel Chariot which is near finished, and can be compleated 
with Harness for four Horses in two or three Weeks, the 
price is Two Hundred & Ten Pounds in Gold or the 
Value thereof in current money. I can not procure one 
under this sum from any of the workmen here & believe 
it is the low^est price, the man who has it has promised to 
wait a Week for your Excellency's answer. 

' ' I believe all the Necessary Furniture and Lining can 
be procured here for a Chariot if you chuse to have one 
made, but doubt much if it will be cheaper. I can not 
ascertain what the Furniture &c. will cost, as some part 
must be made here, and others bought at Different places. 



Washington to Mitchell. 

" Head Quarters, Morristown, 30 March, 1780 
"D'r. Sir 

' ' Your Letter of the 25th did not come to my hands till 
j^esterday afternoon . 

" I will take the chariot at the price of Two hundred 
and ten pounds in gold, provided you have examined it 



47 

yourself with a critical eye or will get some good judge or 
judges to do it and they shall be of opinion that it is made 
in the present taste — well fashioned — composed of sea- 
soned wood well put together — and also that it has, or is 
to have a proper lining &c. * * * I wish you had 
mentioned the maker's name of the one ofl'ered you — if 
it is a common sale chariot, & the workman does not stand 
much upon his character, it may be of little worth from 
the slightness of it. 

" In case you should purchase, please to have my arms 
and crest properly disp'd. of on the chariot. I send them 
for this purpose. * * * " 

Although the gentlemen who accompanied Mr. Mitchell 
to examine this chariot critically, agreed that ' ' it was good 
work & neatly finished in the present Taste, the wood 
* * * well seasoned," they judged it to be too small 
for a man built on the generous proportions of the General, 
who stood six feet three inches, in his stockings, for the 
dimensions were " 3 feet 4 Inches high from the seat to 
the top, and 3 feet 6 Inches wide in the inside. ' ' Hearing 
of a somewhat larger carriage, Mr. Mitchell hastens to 
examine that and writes : 

"Phila, 4- April 1780 

******* 

' ' This day I went to Germantown & have prevailed on 
Mr. Bringhurst to let you have a Chariot he has in hand 
— it appears to be good Work & well seasoned timber, 
the size is 3 feet 6i Inches high & 3 feet 10 Inches wide — 
& will have a very good second Cloth or better if to be got 
this will be ready in Six weeks, the former in Ten days, 
the price is the same. Mr. Craner [?] is the maker of the 
first; Mr. Barret Paints both." 

On April 8, 1780, Washington writes further instruc- 
tions : 

' ' It may not be amiss to ornament the' mouldings with 
a light airy gilding — this will add a little to the expence 



48 

and much to the appearance. — The Harness I would have 
stout and strong, at the same time neatly made and orna- 
mented and of good leather." 

Mitchell reports progress on April 17, 1780, 

'*as the Chariot will be at the Painter's next week, 
wou'd wish your Excellency to inform me of the Colour 
you wou'd chuse it to be, also whether you wou'd chuse 
the Leading Harness to hook to the Wheel Horses Har- 
ness, or by a swingle tree fixed to the Pole — and if you 
wou'd chuse brass boxes to the Hubs of the Wheels." 

On the 26th of June, 1780, Mitchell writes: 

" the Chariot will be finished on Thursday or Friday 
next, & I believe will please your Lady." — Finally on 
the 19th of July he reports: " I sold the old chariot to 
Mr. Bringhurstfor £27. 10., hard money, which I deducted 
out of the price of the new chariot. I have the money 
awaiting your "commands." 

Washington had made timely provision for paying for 
this carriage, as on April 15, 1780, he wrote to Lund 
Washington at Mount Vernon : "I have ordered a chariot 
to be made in Phila. — The price £210 in specie, or Paper 
equivalent." In May, Lund Washington forwarded 
£218. 0. 6 to Mr. Mitchell, and July 26, 1780, Washington 
closed the entire transaction by writing to Mr. Mitchell : 

' ' I thank you for the trouble you have had about the 
chariot. The sum for which the old one sold and w'ch 
you sa}^ lyes in your hands, you will be so good as to pay 
to Mrs. Washington's order." 

The constantl}'- recurring assurance that the wood of 
the new carriage was well seasoned has reference to a 
most vexatious experience Washington had had some 
years previous. 



49 

" In 1768, AVashington ordered from London a chariot, 
to be made in the newest taste, handsome, genteel, and 
light, of the best and fully seasoned wood, and by a cele- 
brated workman. Some months later the coach was 
shipped from London, with a full account from its maker 
of its many noticeable features, and with a warrant of 
being of the highest workmanship. The facts did not 
correspond to the glowing description, and Washington 
soon had good reason to complain of having been imposed 
upon, even after making some allowances for a difference 
of climate. The wood proved to be so exceedingly green, 
instead of seasoned, that the panels slipped out of the 
mouldings before the coach had been two months in use, 
and splitting from end to end, could not be repaired." — 
" George Washington," by W. C. Ford, 1900, Vol. I, p. 
121. 

It was in this unsatisfactory carriage that Mrs. Wash- 
ington drove to Morristown in 1780 and which Mr. Mit- 
chell sold to Bringhurst for ' ' £27 . 10 . , hard money, ' ' Mrs. 
Washington returned to Mount Vernon in the newly 
completed chariot, for which she had waited in Philadel- 
phia for some three or four weeks. The price of the old 
chariot, after deducting the cost of a Marseilles quilt and 
repairs to Washington's watch, was placed in her hands 
by Mr. Mitchell, agreeably to instructions received from 
the General.* 

ClaypooWs ^^ American Daily Advertiser," Philadelphia, 
Tuesday, March 7, 1797 ; also 8, 9 and 10. 

" Sale of Elegant Furniture. 

" On Friday next the 10th instant, at 1 o'clock, will 
be sold at public Auction, at the House of the late Presi- 
dent of the L^nited States, in Market street, 

"A Quantity of Valuable Household Furniture, 
belonging to General Washington, among which are, a 

•"New England Historical and Genealogical Register," Vol. 54, pp. 266-269; 
422-425. 



50 

number of Elegant Chairs with Sattin Bottoms, sattin 
Window Curtains, a Beautiful Cut Glass Lustre, and a 
very complete Mahogany Writing Desk, also a Coach and 
Phaeton. 

" Footman & Co., 

"Auctioneers.^^ 

" Washington Federalist," June ^4-, 1802. 

"For Sale 

"At Mount Vernon, 

" On the 20th day of July, and to continue until all is 

disposed of, for cash, the Household & Kitchen Furniture, 

consisting of almost every description, some valuable 

Prints and Pictures, also a pipe of choice Old Madeira 

Wine. Notice is further given, that all persons having 

claims against the estate of Mrs. Martha Washington, 

late of Fairfax county, deceased, are requested to exhibit 

them to the subscribers, with vouchers therefor, and every 

one indebted to the same are desired to make immediate 

payment. 

"Thomas Peter, ) 77. ± 
<<r^ 117 Ti ri \ -bjxecutors. 

G. W. P. CusTis, S 

"The executors of General Washington will avail 
themselves of the above opportunity, and offer for sale on 
six months credit a number of valuaUe cattle the greater 
part of them from imported stock, about five hundred 
head of Sheep, and nearly the same number of Hogs, 
together with one elegant Chariot & Coachee, with Har- 
ness compleat for four horses ; also four carriage and two 
riding Horses, with a number of Farming Utensils, Camp 
Equipage, and a variety of other articles too numerous to 
particularize. 

" The Executors. 

"June 24th, 1802." 



The Spurious Washington Coach. 



*' Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in the Olden 
Time," by John F. Watson, 184-2, 1st and 2d vols, 
revised and 3d vol. loritten by Willis P. Hazard, 1898. 

[Watson knew what he was writing about and gave 
the end of the white coach in New Orleans, degraded to 
a hen-house, and riddled with shot at the battle; but 
Hazard, while confirming these statements, adds:] 

"' I have seen this Carriage. It was brought from 
New Orleans and exhibited on Chestnut Street as a curi- 
osity. Every one who was desirous of sitting where 
Washington had sat, paid twenty-five cents for the privi- 
lege. It was then stored away in a coach-factory and 
was again exhibited in 1876, at the Centennial Exhibi- 
tion. It is now at the Permanent Exhibition." 

[Could any one who saw the alleged ' ' Washington 
Coach" exhibited at the Centennial Exposition, believe 
for a moment that it had been used as a hen-house, had 
stood out-of-doors in all kinds of weather, been riddled 
with bullets, completely destroyed, deprived of its goose- 
neck crane, and the rest of its iron work used to fence a 
grave?] 



The Powel coach, existing to the present day, has been 
photographed many times ; but all the photographs of this 
equipage, and they are many, whether they are truthfully 
labeled as the Powel coach, or falsely as the Washington 
coach, show the low driving seat without a hammer-cloth 

51 



52 

but protected at the side with arms like a chair. The 
panels in these pictures are plain and the doors are 
unemblazoned, because when the Powel coach was put 
forward as the Washington coach, the telltale ' ' Powel arms 
had to be covered with paint." [Miss M. E. Powel to 
R. L. Brownfield, July 25, 1895.] It thus appears in a 
lithographic reproduction of a photograph taken in 1872, 
when on the 2 2d of February the United Order of 
American Mechanics celebrated the 140th anniversary of 
the birthday of the Father of his Country by a proces- 
sion in the city of New York in which the fraudulent 
coach was one of the greatest attractions. The legend 
under the picture gives Mr. William Dunlap as its custo- 
dian, thus innocently identifying it as the Powel coach. 
It appeared again on September 1, 1888, as part of the 
Buckeye Buggy Company's exhibit in the Columbus, 
Ohio, Centennial celebration of the settlement of that 
State, and was borrowed by that firm from Capt. Ben- 
jamin Richardson of 514 East 116th Street, New York 
City. His grandson, a lad, dressed in continental uniform, 
sat with the driver. The photograph shows the now 
familiar low driving seat, undraped, also the plain panels 
and doors. 

Correspondence Between R. L. Brownfield and Buckeye 
Buggy Company. 

" Columbus, Ohio. 
'' 5 \ 14.\ 1903. 
" Mr. R. L. Brownfield, 

" 85 West Main Street, Uniontown, Pa., 
" Dear Sir: Yours of the 27th was just given to me 
to answer. In reply would be glad to accommodate you 
in any way that we can but as a matter of fact we have 
nothing whatever, to prove that the carriage we had on 
exhibition formerly belonged to Geo. Washington.* We 

• Centennial celebration of the first settlement of Ohio, September 1, 1888. 



53 

simply took it on faith and asked no questions. We have 
no printed matter or anything that relates to the carriage 
except a large photograph of the carriage with horses 
hitched to it as it appeared in the parade. * * * 

" Alfred L. Willson, 
" Prest. Buckeye Buggy Company." 

'' 6 \ 27, 1903. 

" Dear Sir: Referring to your letter of May 14th in 

reference to the George Washington coach, will say that 

we have just run across photograph of the coach and 

herewith mail it to you under separate cover. * * * 

"F. L. Hughes, 
*' Vice-Prest. Buckeye Buggy Co." 

[Photograph of Fair Grounds, Columbus, Ohio. 
Description : frame cottage in which General Grant was 
born, brought to the Grounds for exhibition purposes. 
Same coach as one exhibited at Centennial, also Lafay- 
ette's coach. Baker's Art Gallery.] 



Legend Under a Picture Published by A. 0. Crane, Boston, 
Massachusetts. 

" Gen. Washington's Carriage 
"(Nearly 100 years old.) 
*.'A correct representation, as it appeared in the proces- 
sion of the United Order of American Mechanics, in New 
York, Feb. 22, 1872, on the 140th birthday of the Father 
of his Country. * * * The carriage was built during 
Washington's first Presidential term, and is still rever- 
ently preserved by its present owner, in charge of Mr. 
William Dunlap, of the Phoenix Coach Works, Phila- 
delphia." 

[Dunlap's custodianship identifies this as the same 
carriage shown at the Centennial Exposition ; it follows, 
therefore, that the panels and doors are plain and the 
driver's seat is much below the top of the coach, and 
without the hammer-cloth.] 



64 

Correspondence in Relation to the Coach Exhibited at the 
Centennial Exposition as Washington's Coach. 

" Philadelphia, May 7, 1903. 
*' Mr. R. L. Brownpield, 
" Uniontown, Pa., 

' ' Dear Sir : Your letter of May 4th came duly to 
hand, and, I have to say, that Mr. Wanamaker is absent 
in Europe at the present time, and the subject of which 
you write was a matter of which his former partner, Mr. 
John R. Houghton, was quite familiar some years ago. 

" It appears that the firm procured the loan of what 
was at that time believed to be the ' Washington Coach,' 
and exhibited it in a street parade. The same coach was 
afterwards exhibited in the Centennial Exposition of 1876. 

' * I have referred the matter to the gentleman men- 
tioned above, who believes that the coach to which you 
refer, is the same that was exhibited in '76. He received 
letters from Newport, R. I., stating that the coach be- 
longed to the Powel Estate; that it never belonged to 
Gen. Washington, but that Gen. Washington being a 
guest of the Powel family, on several occasions, rode from 
their home in what is now West Philadelphia, over to 
Christ Church in it. 

' ' The coach is exactly like the ' Washington coach , ' 
but the original coach was taken to Virginia, possibly 
more than a century ago, and parts of it placed in a 
church somewhere in that State, but where, we do not 
know of any one now living that can give any correct 
information about it. 

" Very respectfully yours, 

"H. S. Jones, 

" Secretary J 
" with John Wanamaker." 

" Philadelphia, May 11th, 1903. 
" Mr. R. L, Brownfield, 
" Uniontown, Pa. 
" Dear Sir: I have your letter of May 9th, and, in 
reply, would say that I have no additional information 
concerning the Powel Coach of which you wrote me, than 



55 

that which was forwarded by Mr. Jones, and the extracts 
from Miss Mary E. Powel's letter to you, which you have 
enclosed to me. 

' ' I believe that the coach which was exhibited at the 
Centennial Exposition in 1876 was never owned by 
George Washington. 

" When I was in partnership with Mr. John Wana- 
maker about 1871 or 1872, there was a parade in Phila- 
delphia, at which time I rented the coach from Mr. 
Dunlap, who then had it in his possession. 
" Very respectfully yours, 

"J. R. Houghton." 

"Philadelphia, Sept. 20th, 1894.. 
" Mr. R. L. Brownfield, 

"15 Michigan Ave., Chicago. 
"Dear Sir: Your favor of the 18th received and 
noted. In reference to the Washington Carriage we 
would say that the last knowledge we had of it was in 
1876, when it was exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition. 
After the close of the Exhibition, we understood it was 
bought by a New York party for exhibition at a museum 
in that city. The carriage did not belong to us, but was 
owned by William Dunlap, an old Philadelphia carriage 
maker now deceased. 
" Yours truly, 

" Wm. D. Rodgers, Son & Co. 
" Carriage Builders 

"919 & 921 Walnut street." 

" New York, May 18, 1903. 
"Mr. R. L. Brownfield, &c, 

"Dear Sir: Your favor of May 16th received and as 
regards the question whether the coach which has been 
exhibited was ever owned by Washington, would say that 
evidence seems to be against it. 

" The coach was exhibited as the Washington Coach at 
different times and among these Wood's Museum. Mr. 
Dunlap also had it, at one time, in his repository but he 
admitted that it was not Washington's Coach, in fact, I 
do not think that he exhibited it as a Washington Coach, 



56 

but called it the Powel Coach and I am inclined to believe 
it is a Powel Coach. 

* ' Yours very truly, 

"Trade News Publishing Co. 

" W. N. Fitzgerald, 

''Editor." 



The World on Wheels. Ezra M. Stratton. 

P. 416. '* Probably the only old coach of American 
manufacture in existence to-day is the one still preserved 
in a good state, in the city of Philadelphia, falsely repre- 
sented as having belonged to our Gen. George Washing- 
ton at one time, and palmed off as such on more than 
one public occasion since, in the city of New York, backed 
by the entire press ! We have the strongest reasons for 
believing Washington never owned this coach, and never 
even rode in it ; and yet the managers of some Sanitary 
Fairs have charged their dupes a fee for the privilege 
of sitting a few moments on the cushions where the illus- 
trious Washington once did — not. 

' ' We have already shown what became of Washington's 
imported coach. [Same account as that given in Watson's 
" Annals of Philadelphia."] It now remains to give the 
history of the one here engraved from a photograph, taken 
expressly for this volume in February, 1872. Our 
authority is Mr. Charles Perrie, an aged carriage-maker 
of the city of Philadelphia. He tells us, and is endorsed 
by others, that ' this coach was built in 1790, by David 
Clarke,' who was a Scotchman and had a shop on Sixth, 
between Chestnut and Market Streets, Philadelphia, to the 
order of Samuel Powel of that city. After his death, it 
became the property of his widow, who retained it until 
she died, when it fell into the hands of Col. John Hare 
Powel, a nephew of Mrs. Samuel Powel.' It cost as near 
as our informant recollected, about $800. For a long time 
this carriage, 'as a willful mistake,' was exhibited as 
Washington's in Wood's Museum. At a later period, it 
' ornamented ' the repository of William Dunlap, who 
likewise gave us the history of this coach. It has since 
been disposed of to a Mr. Wharton." 



57 

[In the accompanying illustration the panels and door 
are without ornamentation and the driver's seat is so low 
that the reins come in almost a straight line from the 
horses' heads to the driver's hands. There is no hammer- 
cloth.] 



In the " Report of the Centennial Celebration of Wash- 
ington's Inauguration, New York City, April 30, 1889," 
under the head of ' ' Civic and Industrial Parade ' ' occurs 
this paragraph : 

" Colored Centennial Committee, commanded by George 
W. Lattimore, 1500. An organization of several associa- 
tions and committees, some uniformed, accompanying 
one of George Washington's coaches (or at least a very 
old coach, similar to one owned by Washington) , drawn 
by four horses." 

A year later, on the evening of March 4, 1890, Mr. 
George W. W. Houghton, editor of The Huh, read a 
paper before the New York Historical Society entitled 
" The Coaches of Colonial New York." In this paper he 
gave the true history of the Powel coach and criticised the 
Centennial Committee for admitting it into the parade as 
Gen. Washington's coach. This provoked much inquiry 
and research and drew forth, among others, the following 
letter : 

''November IJ,., 1900. 
" Dear Mr. Hare: 

' ' In answer to your inquiry with regard to the genuine- 
ness of what is known as the Washington coach, I write 
you this to tell you what my father, the late Samuel 
Powel, of Newport and of Philadelphia, has always told 
me with regard to that matter. 

" My father's great-aunt, Mrs. Elizabeth Powel, the 
wife of Samuel Powel, of Philadelphia, was an intimate 
friend of General George Washington. When the Wash- 



58 

ington coach was ordered, Mrs. Powel also ordered a sim- 
ilar coach in the same order. To make this history as 
brief as possible, the Powel coach was not destroyed and 
came down to her descendants, who parted with it many 
years ago, as it had become entirely antiquated and use- 
less, but the Washington coach for some reason or other 
was destroyed. 

" During the exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, when 
the Powel coach was exhibited for the Washington coach, 
my father was asked to state the genuineness of the 
coach. He stated at that time, with many regrets, that 
it was his great-aunt's coach that was exhibited and not 
the Washington coach, which had been destroyed. In 
spite of this the coach has always been known as the 
Washington coach ; I have very little doubt, however, 
that General Washington may have frequently driven in 
the coach. 

" In corroboration of this hypothesis, I may add that 
Mrs. Powel constantly entertained General Washington 
in Philadelphia, and the intimacy of their acquaintance 
is attested by numerous ' relics ' now owned by my late 
father's estate, including some thirty letters from Gen. 
Washington to Mrs. Powel. 

"I may add, by way of further interest, that Mrs. 
Elizabeth Powel adopted my father's father, John Hare 
Powel, who changed his name from Hare to Powel at her 
solicitude, she having no children. 
" Yours truly, 

"Robert J. Hare Powel. 

" Montgomery Hare, Esq." 

[Mrs. Powel, before her marriage, was Miss Elizabeth 
Willing, of Philadelphia; and her husband. Mayor Sam- 
uel Powel, died in 1793 of yellow fever.] 



True History of the So-called <^ Wash- 
ington Coach." 



" 25 Bowery Street, Newport, R. I. 

" July 25, 1895. 
"R. L. Brownfield, Esq., 

" Dear Sir: My uncle, Mr. John Hare Powel, has 
handed me your letter respecting the so-called ' Washing- 
ton Coach ' for reply. 

'' In brief— If you will look into Bishop Meade's book 
on Virginia families (any large library will give you its 
exact title) you will find an account of the General's 
coach which the Bishop destroyed.— This Poiuel coach, 
which for half a century (nearly) has figured as the 
General's, was built at the same time as the General's; in 
England, I think; and with the exception of four copper, 
decorative panels is an exact facsimile of the one destroyed. 
Mrs. Powel and General and Mrs. Washington were inti- 
rnate friends. Their carriages were ordered at the same 
time and of the same maker. Mrs. Bowel's coach was 
blazoned on the door with the Powel arms, they are prob- 
ably to be found there yet under the paint. I think the 
coach was originally yellowish white or cream (possibly 
from age) when I first remember it. Mrs. Powel had the 
high seat removed and the present coachman's seat put 
on ; for, as she and her coachman grew old together, she 
feared he might jolt off." 

[Down to the close of the 18th century it does not 
appear to have been the custom for a builder to stamp, 
paint or engrave his name on the vehicles he turned out. 
Clarke's name does not appear on any part of the Mount 
Vernon coach, but stamped on the two springs of the 

59 



60 

driver's seat is the legend — "Geo. Heyberger, Phila." 
Now George Heyberger appears in the Philadelphia 
directory from 1817 to 1825 inclusive. He was a " coach- 
spring maker," living at No. 50 Coats Street and having 
his place of business in Emlen's Court. His father was 
a blacksmith, living at 351 North Front Street from 1802 
to 1822, when he died. His smithy in 1802 and '3 was 
at 21 Artillery Lane and after that on Noble Street. 

The original high seat of the Powel coach was, there- 
fore, removed and the present low seat on springs substi- 
tuted by George Heyberger of Philadelphia some time be- 
tween 1817 and 1825. The name of " William Dunlap, 
coachmaker," does not appear in the Philadelphia 
directory until 1843 and Col. John Hare Powel gave him 
the Powel coach about 1855.] 

" When General Washington returned to Mount Ver- 
non from Phila. he sold Mrs. Powel his horses, and he had 
at various times ridden in the Powel carriage; (I hold 
the receipt for $1,000.00 signed by Mr. Lear) . One horse 
proved defective and the General sent a pair of handsome 
sconce looking glasses as a 'make weight.' You will 
see a pair illustrated in Lossing's 'Mt. Vernon.' Mrs. 
Powel (MissE. Willing) was my grandfather's, Col. John 
Hare Powel's, aunt, and after her death in 1830 — up to 
which time she used this carriage (and my father told me 
that he, a child, frequently drove in it to visit the neigh- 
boring gentry, &c.) — the carriage remained in the stable 
at Powelton and my grandfather was persecuted by visi- 
tors insisting that it was Gen. W's own coach. This the 
family for almost a century, have always denied and to go 
into the details of the various efforts made to buy and sell 
it, of which I have several, would be too long for a letter, 
besides no one believes us when they want to sell it and 
frequently buyers are equally indignant. In the fifties, 
the dear old carriage appeared here in a circus and I 
remember my father's being much upset by seeing it 
unexpectedly and the remembrances it brought him. My 
grandfather stored the carriage with Mr. Dunlap to get 



61 

it out of the way, not to show it. Finally he gave it to 
Mr. D., who had built him many carriages, as a relic of 
antiquity — and after the coach-builder's death, his family 
sold it. It has figured in circuses, shows, at the Cen- 
tennial, &c. Mr. Wanamaker wished to buy it, but 
declined after writing to one of the family. Mr. John 
Austin Stevens would not have .admitted it into one of 
the great Revolutionary commemorative processions in 
N. Y. some 12 or 15 years back, had he known in time 
and it was not in the Washington procession a few years 
ago. 

" I should add that the coach's owners at the Centen- 
nial presented an affidavit signed by a former servant, 
which was not true — she, a very old woman, may have 
believed it herself. At that time various persons, intend- 
ing to purchase the coach, had received information from 
my father (the late Samuel Powel, eldest son of Col. 
J. H. Powel,) exactly in accord with this present letter. 
' ' I am truly yours 

" Mary Edith Powel." 

[In an earlier letter, Miss Powel writes : ] 

"A person named Steel or Steele was employed at one 
time at Powelton , I believe, but am not sure — perhaps in 
the farmhouse or dairy — or in the large dwelling — but I 
consider it very unlikely indeed that Col. Powel ever 
employed any woman in any capacity about the barns, 
stables, or even in the old coach-house where the carriage 
of which you write, stood. 

"A long time after, I remember seeing a talkative old 
person at the door of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 
and much later, about thirty years ago, I recall hearing 
some members of our family say that she had made mis- 
takes about the carriage and that probably her memory 
was very defective." [July 22, 1893.] 

[In a later letter occurs this paragraph : ] 

'* I have promised Mr. Dodge at Mt. Vernon to write 
him as full an account as possible of our old family coach, 
now in honorable retreat at that place. It is interesting 



62 

being, with very small exceptions, a duplicate of the coach 
destroyed by Bishop Meade, ordered and bought from 
the same maker when Gen. W. ordered and bought his. 
"When Gen. Washington was the guest of Mayor and Mrs. 
Powel, he frequently rode in it and this is the origin of 
the world's calling it ' Gen. M^'s own carriage,' but Col. 
Powel always stated these facts about it." [November 
12, 1903.] 

" My uncle. Col. Powel, was a lad of sixteen or so when 
Powelton was sold. The barn was burned by incendiaries 
some time previous to our leaving, but our own coach 
was kept in ' the old coach-house ' and that was not burned, 
altho' I am not sure if the coach had already, at that 
date, been removed to Dunlap's or no." [November 
21, 1903.] 

There is testimony of three Washington coaches being 
destroyed: first, the one shot to pieces at the battle of 
New Orleans; the second, taken to pieces by order of 
Bishop Meade; and a third that was likewise taken to 
pieces by Henry Dunlap, Sr., coach-builder of Philadel- 
phia. Mrs. Amelia C. Clark of 456 Franklin Street, 
Philadelphia, Pa., testifies in a sworn statement of Sep- 
tember 26, 1907, that her grandfather, Henry Dunlap, 
Sr., owned such a carriage; it was " built in France and 
was of peculiar construction . ' ' When it was ' ' put out 
of use as the result of old age, it was dismembered or 
taken apart " for relics. " Mrs. Mary Dunlap, widow of 
Henry Dunlap, Sr., before her death, presented two of 
the four copper medallions from the panels to the United 
States Government." A third medallion is at present the 
property of Lewis Dunlap (great-grandson of Henry 
Dunlap, Sr.) , who resides on Colona Street, Philadelphia, 
Pa. Of the fourth medallion, the Dunlap family have 
no knowledge. Mrs. Clark owns the cushion from the 
back seat of this same coach. Henry Dunlap, Sr., died 
September 15, 1835, of old age. Henry Dunlap, Jr., 
July 6, 1887, of senile asthenia. 



63 

Application to the National Museum for any informa- 
tion they could give concerning the ' ' two medallions 
given to the United States Government ' ' elicited the 
following : 

"Replying to your inquiry addressed to Mr. A. H.Clark, 
I beg to say that the National Museum has a panel which 
is said to have belonged to Washington's coach, but the 
files contain no information as to its history other than 
that given on the label, a copy of which is enclosed. 
There is no other in the Museum." [R. Rathbun, Assist- 
ant Secretary in charge of National Museum, to Mrs. M. 
S. Beall, Oct. 25, 1907.J 

Copy of Enclosed Label : 

" Painted Panel. — From State coach used by General 
Washington when President. Body, cream color; quar- 
ter panels, with the four seasons painted by Capriani 
[Cipriani] . This panel was presented to the National 
Institute by Mrs. Mary Dunlap, of Georgetown, D. C. 
92,537. 

Transferred from the Patent Office in 1883." 

The medallion in the National Museum representing 
three naked children gathering flowers corresponds in 
every detail with the one owned by Mr. Lewis Dunlap 
which represents three- naked children gathering grapes. 
In 1903 Mrs. Beall was shown a medallion at the National 
Museum, differing in many respects from the two 
described above, and told it w^as from Washington's 
state coach and had been presented to the Government by 
Bishop Meade. 



Copies of Letters, &c., Concerning the 
Powel " Centennial " Coach. 



"International Exposition 

" 1876 

" United States Centennial Commission. 

" Philadelphia, Nov. 27, 1876. 

" Benj. Richardson: 

" Your favor of 17th inst. was duly rec'd. The 'Coach' 
is not sold yet and only $700 is offered, which sum the 
party owning it has thus far refused to accept — I am now 
inclined to think that if you offered $650 I might induce 
him to let it go for a good purpose . 

"I think the Buffalo party would give $800. but I 
told him that nothing less than $1000. would buy it. 

' ' If you still think favorable of buying it I will try 
and close it to you for $650. 

" In haste S. F. Merrill, Sup. 

" M. B. Annex. 
"Cen. Grounds." 



" New York, Nov. 28th 1876. 

" To Mr. Merrill 

"Dear Friend: Your favour of 27th Came Duly to 
hand & I am pleased to hear from you & thank you for 
your good feelings towards Charitys & Bind my self by 
this letter to Pay $650. as Requested by you & you will 
Please write me when you have Closed it & I Can Come 

64 




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65 

on Rightaway you will please use all Exertions to S3cure 
the Carridge and am 

' ' Yours Very Truly 

*' Benjamin Richardson 

' ' I shall have to Examine to see that 
it was Washington's Carridge 
with your Assistance." 

Extract from Will of Benj. Richardson. 

" I give, devise & bequeath to my daughter Sarah Jane 
& to my granddaughter Ella Birdsall in equal parts my 
homestead No. 514 E. 116th Street & the six lots on 115th 
St. in N. Y. City used herewith, together with all the 
house hold furniture, beds, bedding, crockery, furniture, 
& curiosities, & also the ' Washington Coach ' to them, 
their heirs & assigns forever " &c., &c., &c. 

" Brooklyn, N. Y., July 12, 1907. 
" To Whom it May Concern : 

" I desire to state that the so-called ' Washington 
Coach ' now on exhibition at Mount Vernon, Va., by the 
Ladies' Association of the Union was formerly my prop- 
erty, I having inherited itfrom Mr. Benjamin Richardson, 
who purchased it during or immediately after the close of 
the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876. 

' ' While I have always believed that the coach was one 
time the property of General George Washington, it is 
a positive fact that I never had any reliable or absolute 
proof that General Washington either owned or ever used 
this Coach. 

"(Signed) Ella T. Gouverneur. 

" Witnesseth: 

" Jno. J. Harman." 



Statement of Michael Karam, made at New York City. 

"Tuesday, August 27th, 1907, 
* * To whom it may concern : — 

" I, Michael Karam, do hereby certify that I was at one 
time the owner of the coach now in possession of the 



66 

Ladies' Association of the Union and on exhibition at 
Mt. Vernon, Va., which coach is known as * Washing- 
ton's Chariot.' This is the same coach that was pur- 
chased by the late Mr. Benjamin Richardson in 1876 
from or through a Mr. Merrill, who was at that time con- 
nected with the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. 
Mr. Richardson bequeathed this coach jointly, with a 
number of other relics, to his daughter, Sarah Jane Rich- 
ardson and Ella Birdsall, his grand-daughter, now Mrs. 
Gouvernor [sic] of William sburgh, Brooklyn, N.Y. Sarah 
Jane Richardson bequeathed her interest jointly, in this 
coach and other relics, to my wife, who was a grand- 
daughter of Benjamin Richardson, and to Selina Birdsall, 
my wife's sister, who later became Mrs. Joseph Cooper. 
I then' bought out both Mrs. Cooper's and Mrs. Gouver- 
nor's [sic] interest in the coach. I tried to sell the coach to 
the Mt. Vernon Association, through Mr. Dodge, Super- 
intendent of the Association, but failed to do so on 
account of not having any proofs to offer that General 
George Washington either owned, used or ever heard of 
the coach. Later a gentleman named Frey, at whose 
barn I had the coach stored, endeavored to dispose of the 
coach to John Wanamaker of Philadelphia, also to the 
Daughters of the American Revolution. Frey acted as 
my agent in calling upon these latter people, but he failed 
to make a sale on account of not having any legitimate 
proof to offer that the coach had ever been owned, used, 
or was ever known of by General George Washington. 
Frey later told me that he had a customer for the coach, 
but he never told me who the party was, and, without any 
authority from me to sell it to unknown parties, he dis- 
posed of the coach, afterwards refusing to tell me to 
whom, and, always stating that I should not worry 
about collecting the money on the sale of the coach, as 
he had safe-guarded my interest in the sale. He had 
advanced me money on the sale of the coach, something 
like $250.00 or $275.00. I can not recall the exact 
amount. 

" The only evidence that Mr. Richardson could ever 
advance to prove that General George Washington ever 
owned, used, or was even aware of the existence of the 



67 

coach was the affidavit made by Henry Dunlap, June 
12th, 1876, and the affidavit made by EHzabeth Steele [sic] 
on May 27th, 1876. These papers, with a number of news- 
paper and magazine clippings, fell into my possession at 
the time that I bought out the interest of Mrs. Cooper 
and Mrs. Gouvernor, [sic] and these papers were turned 
over to Frey at the time that I delegated him to act as my 
agent. I never later heard to whom he sold the coach, 
but did know that through some person's purchase, it 
came into the possession of the Ladies Association of the 
Union. 

[seal] " (Signed) Michael Karam 

" Witnesseth. 

**J. 0. SCHWAUD." 

'' County of N. Y. 
' ' State of New York 

" On this 27th., day of August 1907, before me per- 
sonally came Michael Karam, to me personally known 
and known to me to be the individual described in and 
who executed the foregoing instrument, and acknowledged 
to me that he executed the same. 

"E. D. Junior 
[seal] "Notary Public, Kings Co. 

" Certificate filed New York Co." 



Opinion Rendered by Professor J. F. 
Jameson. 



' ' Carnegie Institution of Washington 



' Depaetment of Historical Research 

" J. Franklin Jameson 

" Director 



"My dear Mrs. Be all: 



Washington, D. C. 

" February 19, 1908. 



' ' You have been exceedingly patient in not calling upon 
me for an earlier report respecting the matter of the Wash- 
ington carriages. I conclude that you have believed that 
I was doing the best I could, and this has been the case. 
I could not touch the matter until the end of December 
and had then only a short time to give to it. At the first 
of this month I was able to take it up again, and from 
time to time to do something about it. I inclose here- 
with a survey of the evidence, of which I am also send- 
ing a copy to Mr. Dodge at Mt. Vernon. I likewise 
return your very interesting papers and all the various 
affidavits, letters and photographs which you handed to 
me in connection with the matter. I am obliged to you 
for smoothing my pathway by the collection of so much 
material, and am only sorry that it has not been possible 
to come to a conclusion more completely gratifying to 
Mr. Brownfield and to you. 

'' Believe me, 

'* Very truly yours, 

"J. F. Jameson. 

"Mrs. Mary Stevens Beall." 



69 

" Carnegie Institution of Washington 

" Department of Historical Research 
"J. Franklin Jameson 

"Director «' WASHINGTON, D. C. 

" February 19, 1908. 
* ' Dear Madam : 

' ' I have been asked to act as a referee with regard to 
two carriages for each of which the claim is made that it 
once belonged to General Washington. I owe to all who 
are interested an apology for having been so long in fur- 
nishing the following statement ; but I must plead that I 
have many duties, am burdened heavily with my regular 
work, and can only devote small portions of time, sepa- 
rated sometimes by long intervals, to anything of this 
sort. I may also plead that I indicated beforehand that 
this would be the case. In studying the matter I have 
been much assisted by the evidences which you have been 
so kind as to bring forward ; I have also been permitted 
by the kindness of Mr. Dodge to examine the papers that 
are preserved at Mt. Vernon; and I have, so far as my 
time permitted, made examination of such other materials 
as I thought likely to be useful. 

" Of the two carriages in question, one is a coachee pre- 
sented to the Mt. Vernon Ladies Association in 1894 by 
Mr. R. L. Brownfield, and now in a storage warehouse 
in Washington. The coach now at Mt. Vernon was pre- 
sented in 1901. What I shall mainly do, in discussing 
them, is to comment on the value of the various evidences, 
considered from the point of view of one whose business 
it has been, in former times, to teach the principles of 
historical criticism, and always to practice them. I think 
that the clearest mode of procedure will be, first of all, to 
take up those data for which evidence of a conclusive or 
highly reliable character can be adduced and only later to 
discuss the less founded assertions made on behalf of one 
or the other of the carriages. 

" It is clear from the evidences which you have accumu- 
lated that General Washington, first and last, possessed 
many different carriages. His own letters of 1780 to 
John Mitchell of Philadelphia show him obtaining at 
that time a coach, concerning which, however, there is no 
evidence to identify it with any of those of a later time. 



70 

" His letter to Lear, September 5, 1790, the letter of 
Daniel and Francis Clark, September 13, 1790, Wash- 
ington's letter to them of September 17, and Lear's letter 
of October 24, 1790, quoted by you on pages 8-12 of your 
* Documentary History,' show that Washington on go- 
ing to Mt. Vernon had left a coach to be repaired by Clark. 
He calls it an old coach, and neither his letters nor those 
of the firm of Clark give any evidence that it was built 
by them. The letters show conclusively that the coach 
had paintings of the four seasons on the doors and front 
and back, not in the four quarter panels, and that there 
had been oval moldings in the latter panels. He ordered 
the four seasons to be continued in their existing places, 
and ordered that his crest should be painted in the ovals 
on the quarter panels. Some of these data are perhaps 
worth remembering. At all events, we are to attribute a 
much higher value to any of General Washington's state- 
ments about his coaches than we can assign to most of the 
evidences which have been brought forward. It was pre- 
sumably this coach which made with so great success the 
southern trip of 1791, as described in Custis's ' Recollec- 
tions,' page 424, though some of the details in that passage 
are imaginary. 

"There seems to be indisputable evidence, pages 172 
and 173 of your ' Documentary History,' that a coach of 
General Washington was offered for sale in Philadelphia 
in March, 1797, and that ' one elegant Chariot and Coachee ' 
were offered for sale at Mt. Vernon in 1802, by his execu- 
tors. 

"We must accept as solid Bishop Meade's statement 
in his ' Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia,' 
that a coach of General Washington's fell into his hands 
about 1814 and was by him taken to pieces and dispersed. 
There is nothing to identify this coach with those previ- 
ously mentioned. 

" I think that we may also accept certain of the state- 
ments made by Watson in his ' Annals of Philadelphia.' 
He describes a coach with medallions of playing cupids on 
the panels, which he had known in Philadelphia as Gen- 
eral Washington's and which he saw in 1804 or 1805 in 
his own store-yard at New Orleans. Watson kept a store 



71 

in New Orleans from 1804 to 1806. He began to write 
his book in 1820 and this statement is in his first edition, 
that of 1830. His statement that it had been imported 
for Governor Richard Penn is not to be regarded, being 
hearsay. His statement in a footnote that the old coach 
stood between the combatants in the great battle of New 
Orleans and was riddled with shot, is to my mind worth- 
less. At the time of the battle Watson was cashier in a 
bank in Gepnantown, and could not know this except on 
hearsay. It is just the sort of legendary statement which, 
as every student of history knows, would be likely to 
spring up in any such case. Any movable object known 
to have been in or near New Orleans in 1814 would be 
fabled to have had some sort of connection with the battle. 
The statement about the battle is not in the original 
edition of Watson but was subsequently inserted. While 
speaking of Watson, I may add that nothing which you 
have quoted from the third volume has an}'' independent 
value. 

' ' I may also remark that no pictures of General Wash- 
ington 's coach have any value whatever. There is not 
the slightest evidence that any one of them was ever 
made in sight of a coach belonging to him. Mr. Fenn's 
picture is proved by his own statement to be worthless. 
Lossing, in his book on Mount Vernon, page 234 or 235, 
pictures the General's coach with a crest on the doors, 
not inclosed in ovals, and with the four seasons on the 
quarter panels. General Washington's own statements 
show all this to be fanciful. Lossing also shows Venetian 
blinds in the front of the coach, where the General's own 
statements show him to have been determined to have 
glass; and I think he generally got what he wanted. 
While speaking of Lossing, I may add that he says in 
his first edition, ' Clarke built the coach in England, 
came over with it and another precisely like it (which 
was imported by Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia) , and settled 
in business in that city.' In his edition of 1866 one 
can see that the text has been changed, by alterations of 
the stereotype plate, in such a manner as to omit the 
reference to Mrs. Powel and the statement that the coach 
was built in England. 



72 

" In Lossing's first edition he says that it was this 
English-built coach which was bought by Custis and 
passed from him to Bishop Meade. As he was writing 
fifty years later than the events, he may have had no 
basis whatever for this statement. 

*' On pages 35 and 36 of your " Documentary History " 
you cite a sworn statement, dated September 26, 1907, and 
made by a [grand] daughter of Henry Dunlap, Sr., coach 
builder of Philadelphia, to the effect that her [grand] father 
took to pieces for relics a coach which belonged to General 
Washington. As her [grand] father died in 1835 I lay no 
stress upon this statement, though without disputing that 
she believed it to be true. But there is in the National 
Museum a panel, painted apparently on copper, of an 
oval shape, representing three naked children gathering 
flowers, and this is labelled as having come from the 
family of Henry Dunlap. It came from the Patent 
Office in 1883, as you say. The old Patent Office label 
which is still upon it indicates it to have gone from the 
Dunlap family into the possession of John Garden, a 
collector who, I believe, had a sort of museum in Wash- 
ington, and to have passed from his hands into the Pat- 
ent Office. The label also declares that the panel was 
identified by Mr. Custis. There would appear to be 
pretty good evidence that in this we have a genuine por- 
tion of a Washington coach. 

" Having perhaps somewhat cleared the ground by 
segregating the above and separately considering such 
trustworthy evidences as I have seen respecting real 
coaches of Washington, I shall proceed to discuss the 
coach now held at Mt. Vernon, bearing a discreet label 
which shows no more than that the carriage was exhibited 
at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, as 
Washington's chariot. I do not suppose it to be neces- 
sary to go into a history of its possession since 1876. You 
seem abundantly to show by Michael Karam's statement 
of August 27, 1907, by Mrs. Gouverneur's of July 12 of 
that year, by the clause of Benjamin Richardson's will 
and by his letter of November 28, 1876, and that of S. F. 
Merrill dated November 27, 1876, that this coach is the 
one exhibited at Philadelphia, in the last-named year. 



73 

The letter of Mr. J. R. Houghton shows it to have been 
in the possession of William Dunlap of Philadelphia in 
1872. A letter of Samuel W. Dewey of Philadelphia, 
dated December 24, 1859, preserved at Mt. Vernon, shows 
that William Dunlap had then had it in his custody for 
six years, and that Samuel Powel of Philadelphia was 
the owner. I can see no reason to doubt the statements 
made by Miss Mary Edith Powel in her letter of July 5, 
1895, quoted by you, and those of Mr. Robert J. Hare 
Powel in his letter of November 14, 1900, to the effect 
that this coach was originally the property of Mrs. Eliza- 
beth Powel of Philadelphia and not of General Wash- 
ington. Since General Washington, in 1790, speaks of 
his coach as old, I do not put much faith in statements 
which imply that Washington and Mrs. Powel procured 
identical coaches at the same time, either from England 
or in America ; for though they were in a sense neigh- 
bors in 1790, they were not in previous times. 

' ' The copper medallion at the National Museum is an 
oval, about ten inches by eight. One of the holes by 
which it was fastened can be seen. The screws must 
have been large enough to make a considerable impression 
upon the doors, front and back, if the four medallions 
there placed were subsequently removed. But the coach 
at Mt. Vernon shows no traces of any such screw holes, 
nor of any oval moldings in the quarter panels. On the 
other hand, one can plainly see on the doors, in a strong 
light, the evidence that some painting of smaller size was 
once there. 

" The only evidence to show that the coach now at Mt. 
Vernon was once the property of General Washington is 
the deposition of Elizabeth Steele, [sic] an ancient serving- 
woman, who testified in 1876 of matters relating to the 
period 1842-1850. No rules of historical evidence would 
permit one to attach serious value to her statements when 
contradictory to those made explicitly by members of the 
family in the letters referred to above. I should think 
that in connection with those letters there was some force 
in the presence of the name of George Heyberger, on the 
iron work of the seat, in connection with the statements 
about Mrs. Powel' s alterations of her vehicle, though I 



74 

will mention that there was a George Heyberger, [*] black- 
smith, in Philadelphia as early as 1800. 

" All things considered, then, I am forced to conclude 
that there is no evidence that the coach now exhibited at 
Mt. Vernon was ever the property of General Washington. 
On the other hand, I am bound to say that I see no evi- 
dence that the coachee formerly presented by Mr. Brown- 
field has any connection with Washington, either. Mr. 
Brownfield's letter of May 9, 1907, preserved at Mt. Ver- 
non, says that Forepaugh's widow assured him that the 
coach had been the General's, but that as her husband's 
papers had been destroyed by fire the proofs contained in 
them were lost. Such statements have no worth. In 
the narrative which you have sent me, the one typewritten 
on blue paper, I see that the coach has been traced back 
into the possession of a certain Roman Ketterer, who died 
in 1891 . How long he had possession of it, is not shown. 
The only evidence which you adduce, toward bridging 
the long gap from 1802, when we know that the coachee 
belonging to Washington was offered for sale, to 1891, 
when we know that Roman Ketterer died possessed of a 
coachee, is the evidence of Mrs. Ann Reese, a lady of 
eighty-eight [sic] years, who testifies that previous to 1829 
her brother had a coachee which had belonged to General 
Washington. The rules of historical evidence would for- 
bid us to attach more than a very slight value to such 
recollections. Even if we considered them perfectly solid, 
we have still the gap from 1829 to 1891, toward bridging 
which you bring forward nothing but Mrs. Reese's identi- 
fication of a photograph. Under such circumstances old 
ladies always identify old photographs ; and most photo- 
graphs of ancient coaches look very much alike. 

"Accordingly, I am forced to conclude that we have 
no serious evidence to show that either of these carriages 
belonged to General Washington, while we also have 
much to show that the coach now at Mt. Vernon belonged 
instead to Mrs. Powel. 

" Believe me, with high regard, 

" Very truly yours, 

"J. F. Jameson. 

" Mrs. Mary Stevens Beall." 

* George H. Heyberger, the blacksmith, who died in 1822, was the father of 
George Heyberger, the coach spring maker, whose name appears in the Philadelphia 
directory from 1817 to 1825 inclusive.— M. S. Beall. 



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